


It's not the size that counts

by aLoggedInReader



Series: The Baby!Gabe Saga [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Daddy!Sam, Family, Fluff, Sweetness, alternate season 6, baby!Gabe, mentions of past torture in the cage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-17
Updated: 2015-02-23
Packaged: 2018-03-13 11:49:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 31
Words: 72,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3380417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aLoggedInReader/pseuds/aLoggedInReader
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gabriel has never been that easy to deal with. That he is even smaller and wearing diapers now doesn't make that better, either. It also doesn't help that Sam only just came back from the cage and Raphael is hell-bent on restarting the Apocalypse. Takes place after the season 5 finale</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Special thanks to Ghastly Eternity for beta-reading!

**Prologue**

 

“I think you’ve had enough,” the barkeeper stated definitely and took Dean’s empty glass away without returning it again.

“My brother just died,” the older Winchester – now the only Winchester – mumbled as if he expected that fact to change the other man’s mind about the matter. To tell the truth, he would have had pretty good chances, if it wasn’t for one simple fact.

“That’s what you’ve been saying every night those past two weeks,” the barkeeper replied in a gentler tone than what the one he would have used on nearly everyone else. Dean hadn’t given him any real troubles and it was plain as day that he was suffering immensely, so he could cut the guy some slack. He wouldn’t help him to get any more intoxicated, however.

“Come on, man, that’s not what your brother would have wanted,” the barkeeper stated with conviction as he put a glass of water in front of the sad man in front of him.

“Don’t I know it,” Dean snorted and pushed the glass away from himself, “I know exactly what he’d have wanted. He told me. But the bitch doesn’t get to tell me how I’m going to grief and neither do you!”

It was quite impressive that the Winchester was still capable of speech to the extent he obviously was. He might have slurred his words a little, but he should have been by far more impaired in his speech at this point.

The barkeeper wasn’t fooled, though. He had seen Dean every night for two weeks and knew that he was pretty close to getting too drunk to stand on his own and he wasn’t going to let him sleep in the bar, again. Once had been enough!

The Winchester was getting up from his seat at that point. They had been playing this game for weeks, so they both knew exactly where it was going. Dean would leave and find another way to get drunk enough so he could sleep. He would either buy some booze to consume in his hotel room, or he would go to another barkeeper who didn’t have any qualms about knocking him off his feet.

What came next was a departure from their usual routine, however.

“Hello, Dean,” Castiel stated in his usual, stoic tone.

The barkeeper could have sworn that the man in the trench coat had appeared out of thin air, but he had paid more attention to the Winchester than he had to the room as a whole, so it was entirely possible that he simply hadn’t noticed him walking in.

“Nobody called you,” Dean muttered under his breath, “Stupid angel.”

“Bobby is worried about you,” Castiel said without batting an eye because of his friend’s comment.

It was obvious that those two knew each other and it was equally obvious that the newcomer didn’t have any malicious intentions, so the barkeeper decided to remove himself from this end of the bar. There were a couple of regulars that required his attention, anyway.

“Tell him to stop worrying, then,” the Winchester mumbled, slurring his words more than he had before. Apparently, the alcohol was only now taking full effect. So, maybe the barkeeper had been right about him having had enough, after all.

Castiel looked as annoyed as he would get without actually wanting to slam Dean into walls and punch him in the face repeatedly. He didn’t wait for the other man to do or say anything more and just put two fingers against his forehead, sobering him up instantly.

“What did you do that for?” Dean yelled at his friend and gave Castiel a hard push.

“You were in no condition to have a serious discussion,” the angel replied calmly and followed the human when he stormed outside without glancing back even once.

Castiel wouldn’t say that he had better things to do, but he clearly had other things to do than trying to talk some sense into a notoriously stubborn human. Still, here he was attempting to do exactly that.

“What do you want to discuss, Cas?” Dean asked venomously and finally turned around when they were standing outside the bar.

There was absolutely nothing he was willing to discuss. He had pretty much chosen the path he wanted to be on right now and he wasn’t going to let anyone talk him out of that. If Sammy could decide to let the devil ride his ass straight to hell, then Dean had every right to decide that he wanted to drink himself into oblivion over it!

“You made a promise to your brother,” the angel stated matter-of-factly, never letting his gaze stray from Dean’s eyes, “And I made a promise to Sam, as well.”

If the human found the way Castiel was staring people down unnerving usually, he found it thoroughly provocative now.

“Know what, Cas? I don’t give a damn!” Dean shot back and went to the driver’s side of the Impala. Luckily the barkeeper hadn’t gotten around to confiscating his keys this time.

“I don’t give a damn about your promise and I don’t give a damn about mine, either!” he elaborated, talking himself deeper and deeper into rage, “Sam never had the right to make me promise what he did, anyway! _This_ is my life now. My brother's gone. I'm on my own. No more responsibilities for somebody else!”

It had been a stupid promise in the first place. Why should he go and mess up Lisa and Ben’s lives? Why go and put them in danger? Why go and make promises to them that he wouldn’t be able to hold, anyway? Wasn’t it enough that he had promised – time and time again – that he would protect Sammy, that he’d keep him on the right path and safe in general and that he had completely failed in all those things?

“Systematically destroying your liver is not what we stopped the Apocalypse for,” Castiel stated seriously.

If Dean did not want to settle down as he had promised, he could still go on hunting and use the life he had been given for something better than becoming a full-fledged alcoholic.

“We stopped it because your father couldn’t be bothered to do it,” the Winchester snorted, “And I’m tired of doing His job! Why should I care, if He doesn’t?”

The angel clearly wanted to say something to that, but the human stopped him with a gesture.

“He watched Ellen and Jo die and didn’t do a thing. He let Lucifer kill Gabriel for trying to help us and He let Sammy damn himself to an eternity in hell after rubbing the fact that he’d go to heaven after death into his face,” Dean spat, “So, if He ever expects anything from me again, He first has to show that He gives a fuck about the people that are trying to do His work!”

Not to mention people that had believed in Him long before they had a reason to do so. Yeah, God was clearly Dean’s least favorite person at the moment and it was doubtful that He’d ever lose that place to someone else.

“Heaven can kiss my ass, anyway,” he added nearly as an afterthought, “It’s not like any of them have ever done anything for me.”

Dean regretted ever saying that as soon as he saw the even more stony expression than usual on Castiel’s face. The angel disappeared before he could have done anything to soften the blow, however.

“Dammit, Cas, that didn’t include you,” the Winchester sighed deeply before he got into his car and took off towards Bobby’s. He already had alienated one of the very few people who still gave a damn about him. There was no need to add Bobby to that list.


	2. Chapter 2

**1**

 

Sam awoke with a start.

His eyes snapped open for a moment before he pressed his palms against them with a groan. He felt like his eyes were burning right out of their sockets, a feeling he was much better acquainted with than anyone should ever be. Instead of intensifying, the feeling died down slightly after a while which didn’t really make sense to the younger Winchester.

Nothing ever got better! Well, there were the moments when he got put back together only so he could be taken apart again, but there was only a split second in which he’d be relatively unharmed before things took a turn for the worse. Always for the worse.

Sam removed his hands from his face, preparing himself for the worst and then preparing himself for the fact that his imagination would never do to even come close to what Lucifer and Michael had in store for him. Pissing off the devil and the mightiest archangel of the Lord really paid off.

What he saw made even less sense than the fact that he still felt relatively okay. If he hadn’t known better, Sam would have said that he was staring at the ceiling of some motel room he might have been sharing with Dean before he had jumped into the cage.

Oh joy! They were getting to the mental torture again! Only there was nothing but peace and quiet and a soft enough bed he only now noticed he was lying on. Neither Michael nor Lucifer had the patience to torture him with peace and quiet, though. Even if he was suspicious and was waiting for the other shoe to drop, it would take a long time before he really went insane just from being in a simple motel room.

The younger Winchester sat up gingerly, not exactly trusting his own body. He wasn’t quite sure how much time he had already spent in the cage, but it was long enough to really mess with his perception of many things. The perception of time obviously, but there also was his perception of pain and the general perception of which things were real and which weren’t.

Sam breathed deeply a couple of times and was filled with a strange sense of serenity which – ironically – unsettled him a lot once he noticed it was there. If there was something that had no place in his life – or afterlife, or whatever the hell he was supposed to call this – it was tranquility or any other good feelings, really.

Still, the other shoe didn’t drop, the pain didn’t come and the taunting didn’t start. He was still simply sitting on a motel bed, looking at a wall without really seeing it and for once there was nothing else he’d rather do.

Well, there was one thing he wished he could do, but that was so far from everything possible that he didn’t even finish the thought before he dismissed it.

A few more minutes ticked by without anything whatsoever happening. Maybe Sam had overestimated the time it would take for him to go crazy from simply waiting for the time when the torture would start again severely.

He nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard a gurgling that disturbed the usual motel sounds he had shrugged off as a part of the illusion before. The quiet gurgling seemed to come from behind the screen that some motels seemed to have standing around for some reason. Mostly to hide mold or serious damages in the walls, if you wanted to be realistic about it. This one, however, hid a portacrib and a small baby that was the source for the sounds, as well.

“What the hell?” Sam muttered. He couldn’t stop staring at the infant, even if he wanted to. What was a seemingly happy baby doing in some illusion Michael, or Lucifer, or both of them had thrown him into?

The younger Winchester was pretty sure that he had never seen the baby before, either. There weren’t that many babies he had ever known to begin with and the little boy – if the blue romper suit was anything to go by – didn’t look like Sam or Dean had as a baby. Those would have been the most likely options for infants that were meant to be a part of some sort of mental torture the tall human had been able to come up with.

It was then that the baby fixed his huge, golden-brown eyes on Sam’s green ones. The younger Winchester’s swallowed and shook his head in denial.

Alright, so the infant did resemble someone he had known as an adult. Only, it didn’t make any sense whatsoever.

“Gabriel?” Sam whispered, because his voice wouldn’t work quite right. He probably should have tried to find a glass of water before, but he still assumed that it would only turn to dust or worse as soon as he tried to actually drink it.

The infant gurgled happily and stretched his tiny arms as a sign that he wanted to be picked up. The growing feeling of dread made Sam back away instead, though.

None of this made any sense! Hell, being tortured by Lucifer and Michael made sense to the younger Winchester in some twisted way. He knew why they were doing it, he knew quite a few of the things they enjoyed doing the most and he knew for a fact that they would be doing it over and over again just to get the most out of the eternity they all had together.

Being in a motel room with an infant-version of Gabriel did not make sense, though. It probably wouldn’t even have made sense, if he had never gone to hell.

Well, a lot of things that didn’t make sense had happened to them over the years, so if he had never jumped into the cage, chances were, he would have taken it in a stride and tried to figure out what had happened to the archangel. Dean, of course, would have had a blast with that one. The Trickster as an innocent little baby. Okay, his older brother would have assumed that it was some sort of stupid joke first, but if they had found out that it wasn’t, he would have had a lot of fun with someone playing a prank like that on Gabriel, of all people.

Sam wasn’t content with the direction his thoughts were going. He had tried to ban all thoughts from his former life from his mind, so they couldn’t be used to hurt him. For a while he had been rather sure that he had succeeded, but then this had happened!

It was pure instinct that forced him to walk back towards the portacrib when the infant started to cry. The baby was still stretching his arms toward Sam, but he had tears in his eyes and a completely displeased expression on his face now.

The younger Winchester had a very bad feeling that didn’t purely come from the fact that he knew next to nothing about babies when he bowed down to pick the infant up. At least, the crying toned down to simple sniffling as soon as he held the baby securely against his shoulder.

A tiny hand reached for Sam’s neck and the very strong feeling that he was actually holding Gabriel spread throughout the younger Winchester’s entire being. It wasn’t like he had been in contact with the archangel all too much before both of them had died, but he still felt that he knew who the baby was with every fiber of his being.

“This is messed up,” Sam sighed as he sat back down on the motel bed, suddenly feeling dizzy, “Even for our standards. Totally messed up!”

If the infant did or didn’t understand what he had just said was up for interpretation, but the baby cuddled up more against his shoulder and the sense of tranquility that came with it wasn’t leaving him feeling all too unsettled this time.

“What the hell happened to you, Gabriel?” the younger Winchester asked, turning his head sideways so he could look into the infant’s face.

He really couldn’t say why he was so damn sure that the baby somehow was the archangel, but there was no place for doubts in his mind. The golden-brown eyes and the full mop of light brown hair surely helped, but there was more than simple physical similarities to Sam’s conviction that he was currently holding a babyfied version of the dead archangel.

The infant squealed happily at the mention of his name, but gave no other signs that he had understood the question. That, of course, didn’t necessarily mean that he hadn’t, though. Yes, Sam would have to find a way to figure out if and how they could communicate.

Hell, first of all he would have to figure out where they actually were and he didn’t mean the name of the hotel or the state they were in. Sam was more thinking along the lines of them being in the cage or somehow back on Earth. Both options didn’t make all too much sense, though.

After a couple more moments with Gabriel just sucking on his thumb and the younger Winchester trying and failing to come up with any explanations of what the fuck was going on, Sam sighed deeply and gently removed the baby from his shoulder to put him on the bed.

For the moment being, he just had to assume that this was – again, somehow – real and that meant he should go and try to find out where they were and how they were going to get away from there.

“Okay, listen, I’ll search for clues and you just stay there,” Sam told the infant who gave no signs whatsoever that he was understanding or even listening to a word that had been said.

Instead, Gabriel was lying on his back with his little fingers grabbing his toes and gurgling happily. As far as the younger Winchester could remember, there was a yoga position like that called ‘happy baby pose’. Yes, that one had been named very adequately.

It probably wouldn’t win him any points in the parenting department, but Sam just had to leave the infant like that at least long enough to find out where the motel was. He had already located the phone, but he was still thinking about who he should even try to call, so that could wait another little while.

In his quick search of the room the younger Winchester came across something that made him want to sit back down again, immediately.

“Two weeks,” he mumbled disbelievingly, staring at the newspaper that had been left on the table. Granted, he didn’t know how old it was, but something told him that it couldn’t be more than a couple of days, if even that much.

Of course, Sam had known that time passed differently in hell, but this was a lot to take in. At least, approximately knowing the date made the decision whose number he should dial easier.

It was then that Gabriel squealed and tumbled off the bed, however. The younger Winchester knew that he was already reacting too late, but he sprinted back to the other side of the room and nearly threw himself to the floor to see if the infant was okay, anyway.

The baby had teary eyes, but looked strangely calm otherwise, considering the circumstances. Sam scooped him up and held him against his chest while running his fingers through his soft hair to look for any lumps that might be forming. There were none, luckily. The human was pretty sure that allowing a baby-archangel to hurt himself seriously was a one-way ticket straight back to hell!

“You’re not a normal baby, are you?” the younger Winchester sighed relieved, leaning back against the bed and still holding the tiny archangel close to his chest.

Okay, what should have been normal about an angel in a baby’s body? So, that wasn’t exactly the new discovery of the century.

Actually, it seemed like Gabriel wasn’t only in a baby’s body. For all Sam knew about angels, he would have thought that an angel in a baby’s body would have possessed the same adult mind as they had in their usual vessels. The thought was creepy as hell, but it seemed logical.

Gabriel, on the other hand, seemed to be an infant, possibly with a couple of angelic extras.

A part of the younger Winchester wished that this was just one of the archangel’s stupid pranks and he’d turn back into an adult any second and have a good laugh at his expenses. Things truly were messed up enough to make that the preferable option.

Instead, the baby rubbed his little head against Sam’s chest for a few moments and finally put his thumb back into his mouth, sucking contently.

The younger Winchester sighed – not all too contently – and absentmindedly petted the infant’s hair. The most likely explanation for all this would have been that Sam had lost the last of his marbles and had landed himself a permanent place in the loony bin, but ironically that option just wasn’t realistic.

“We’ll figure this out,” he whispered mostly to himself, “We will figure this out.”


	3. Chapter 3

**2**

 

This time, Sam put Gabriel back into the crib before he went to get the telephone. He might have been incredibly lucky that the baby apparently hadn’t been hurt when he fell the last time just as well as the tiny archangel really having enough of his powers so he couldn’t get hurt easily, after all.

The younger Winchester’s hands shook when he dialed the number that was ingrained in his brain so deeply that he doubted he could ever forget it. He didn’t really know what he would say, but there probably was no protocol for this kind of situation, anyway.

“Don’t hang up, please Bobby, just don’t hang up!” Sam said very quickly as soon as the connection had been established, “Just grab whatever stuff you’ll need to make sure I’m actually myself and come to the Crossroads motel in Walkerville, Montana. Please!”

There was silence on the other end of the line and honestly, Sam couldn’t blame the older hunter for that one. He had realized that he sounded insane the very moment he had opened his mouth, but he hadn’t been able to stop himself.

“I don’t know what happened. I woke up here about an hour ago and…” the younger Winchester trailed off, because he clearly wouldn’t make things better with talking more. The truth was that he wasn’t feeling all too great and that he’d give anything just to have a familiar face around, but if he was starting to say things like that now, Bobby would hang up for sure.

“Sammy?” a voice from the other side finally asked. It wasn’t the voice he had expected to hear, but it was no less welcome.

“Dean,” Sam sighed, incredibly relieved but at the same time so very tired, “Look, I know what you’re thinking, but I’m not a Crocotta or something.”

The older Winchester snorted. He didn’t have to point out that that was exactly what some monster trying to deceive him would say, because it was more than obvious.

“I’ll come for you,” Dean stated in a tight voice after a couple of moments of consideration, “And that’s a threat, if you’re anyone but my brother!”

The younger Winchester nearly laughed with relief. He had thought that simply getting someone to Walkerville would be much harder, but it seemed that he was lucky that one time.

There was no use saying much more before his brother was convinced that he was really who he said he was and they both hung up at the same time.

As soon as Sam had put the receiver down, he slumped to the floor and took a few shuddering breaths. A part of him had not believed that he could actually interact with anybody outside of this room until the very moment Dean had picked up. Now, a part of him was once more waiting for this illusion to end. Clearly, it had to end. He was actually having hopes that his brother would come to pick him up, so they had gotten what they had wanted. He once more had something they could take away from him.

The younger Winchester snapped out of his thoughts when Gabriel started to wail. He struggled to get back to his feet and picked the crying infant up as soon as he trusted himself to actually remain upright.

“Okay, I get it, you’re not happy,” Sam told the baby a little helplessly when his bawling didn’t die down after a couple of moments. Gabriel’s little face was scrunched up and tears were still running over his chubby cheeks. Apparently, he hadn’t simply wanted to be picked up this time. Dammit!

The infant’s rumbling stomach was a rather good clue for what the problem was. It didn’t tell the younger Winchester how the hell he was supposed to solve it, though.

Under normal circumstances it wouldn’t have been tricky at all. He would have taken his wallet and looked for the closest diner. Then again, there was nothing to indicate that the circumstances weren’t perfectly normal, except for Gabriel being a baby and Sam being back from the cage and all that.

Sam tried his best to hush the infant and his own anxious thoughts while he reached for his back pocket. He could clearly feel that his wallet was there, now that he was concentrating on it, but that didn’t have to mean anything.

It looked like they were lucky, though. The younger Winchester found that he had enough money on himself to get them through quite comfortably, even.

“Seems your father understands the concept of child support,” Sam told the complaining baby with a small smile. The meaning of what he had just casually said, following a sudden impulse, only hit the younger Winchester a couple of moments later.

Thinking about it, God would have the means to get both of them back from the dead without breaking a sweat. It was the first explanation for everything that had happened that didn’t make him feel on the verge of panic, too. It would mean that everything was real and that Michael and Lucifer had nothing to do with anything, after all. The only question was why God would have done this.

Sam didn’t get the time to come up with possible answers, because Gabriel’s wails were becoming louder again, though. He quickly stuffed his wallet back into his pocket and held the infant with both arms, rocking him gently and making soothing noises.

Maybe the younger Winchester was really going insane, but he could have sworn that the baby archangel gave him a look that said something like ‘What the hell, human? I’m hungry! Feed me!’. The moment was over when Gabriel calmed down and even giggled quietly. Well, Sam was doing something right, it seemed.

He still decided that it was time to face the fears that were still there – albeit at the back of his mind – and leave the room. Dean and Bobby were too far away to simply sit and wait. They needed supplies, especially if baby archangels needed food and God knew what else! Pun absolutely intended.

Sam stepped out into the parking lot, Gabriel securely pressed against his chest and looked around nervously. He sighed deeply and started to walk toward the diner that was conveniently located just across the street after a couple of moments.

All those ordinary, everyday tasks should not have been as strenuous as they were. The younger Winchester was pretty much convinced that he would have given up by now, if it weren’t for the rather helpless angel depending on him, for all it looked like.

Still, Sam felt ready to crawl into bed and sleep for a decade when he finally managed to get them seated in a booth and the back of the diner. Gabriel was thankfully quiet and just cuddled up against the younger Winchester’s shoulder while sucking on his thumb and looking up to his caretaker’s face trustingly. That probably shouldn’t have freaked Sam out as much as it did, either.

“Aww, look at that little cutie!” the waitress cooed and didn’t realize that she had just startled the younger Winchester badly, because she went to get a highchair for them, immediately.

“What do you even eat?” the tall human mumbled a question, looking at the infant as if he expected an answer, even though he really didn’t at this point.

He ended up ordering peas, mashed potatoes and applesauce, just hoping that one of these things would agree with Gabriel. The cup of coffee he had ordered for himself was really necessary by that time, too.

“Okay, just a minute now,” Sam whispered reassuringly when the baby’s face adapted a look like he was going to cry any second, again. The way his little tummy was rumbling suggested that he had a really good reason to be displeased, however.

The younger Winchester decided to pass some time by getting Gabriel set up in the highchair. This, too, should not have been as hard as it proved to be. The archangel just didn’t want to let go of Sam’s shirt and when he finally had to release it, he started to bawl miserably and very loudly. The tall human very quickly brought the baby back to his chest, after that.

He wouldn’t have told anyone, but Sam found that he preferred simply holding Gabriel, too. He idly wondered if this was how all young parents felt, or if it was just how – let’s face it – mentally unstable and thoroughly exhausted people straight back from hell felt. Then again, maybe there wasn’t that much of a difference between those two.

Their food arrived quickly enough and the younger Winchester was insanely happy that new customers arrived just that moment, so the waitress had to leave them alone. Okay, it was just about getting the little angel to eat something, but Sam didn’t like the idea of being watched all the same.

The peas didn’t agree with Gabriel which the baby announced loudly to the entire diner. Also, the younger Winchester knew that he was reading a meaning into something where there wasn’t one, but he really thought that the infant gave him a look saying ‘You can eat those, yourself!’.

The mashed potatoes triggered a similar reaction and Sam really started to fear that someone would call the police on him for mistreating a baby. A couple of people were looking his way and shaking their heads, already.

The younger Winchester brought the spoon with the applesauce to the infant’s mouth with a rising feeling of dread, but instead of another complaint he got silence.

“Figures,” Sam snorted, too tired to be amused, “We should have started with the sweeter stuff, huh?”

He was quick to fill the spoon and feed Gabriel some more before he could demand it loudly. The content silence that followed was exactly what the tall human needed to pull himself together and prepare to keep going for just a while longer, too.

“You really should have given the peas a chance, Gabe,” the younger Winchester commented when he found a second to eat something, too, “They are good and healthy.”

He hadn’t even realized that he was hungry before he had started to eat and he was quite sure that he had never enjoyed something as simple as peas as much as he did that very moment.

Between eating the peas and mashed potatoes the baby hadn’t wanted and feeding Gabriel the applesauce he very much wanted, quite some time passed and the diner became quiet once more as lunchtime was over. That meant the waitress was free to lurk around them, again.

“What’s his name?” Helen – as the nametag said – asked in a honeysweet voice when she decided that pretending that she was just wiping the table next to them wouldn’t work anymore, anyway. So, it wasn’t every day that she got tall, attractive customers with cute, little babies, sue her!

“Gabriel,” Sam replied automatically, offering another spoonful of food to the tiny archangel. Now that they had found something he liked, the younger Winchester didn’t have to worry about him not eating anymore.

“He’s your first one?” she wanted to know next, even though it was quite clear that she thought she already knew the answer, anyway. Well, the assumption didn’t come from nothing. It just had to show how unsure Sam was about handling the infant.

“Yes,” the younger Winchester replied a little reluctantly. But really, what else should he say? He could have explained something about babysitting for a relative or anything alike, but he didn’t feel like making up a story, so he just went with what Helen had suggested.

“He really looks like you,” she stated with a smile and leaned over to tap Gabriel’s tiny nose gently, “You’ll need to eat well, if you want to grow up to be as tall as your daddy!”

The baby angel looked back at the woman uncomprehendingly for a second and then tried to reach for the spoon that wasn’t as close to his mouth as it should have been. Sam quickly complied, even as he tried not to chuckle. That was one fight he lost, however.

“I really have this strange feeling that he’ll stay rather short,” the younger Winchester shrugged lightly. Also, his exhausted brain found it amusing that the archangel was meant to somewhat look like him. Of course, that was just one of the things people told the parents of a baby, no matter what they really looked like.

“Can you tell me where I can find a shop to buy some stuff for him?” Sam suddenly asked and then added a little lamely, “Our trip is taking longer than anticipated and we didn’t bring enough clothes.”

He still didn’t know which bodily functions a baby archangel would have, but he knew that Gabriel was a messy eater and needed at least some more clothes. The baby seemed to be full and ready to go, or possibly take a nap, anyway.

“Oh, there’s a superstore just down the street,” Helen gladly informed him and Sam got the impression that she would have come along for some shopping immediately, if he had asked her to.

“Thank you,” the younger Winchester said with a short, dimpled smile and wiped off the baby’s face with a napkin. As tempting as it might seem to take someone who might have known something about infants along, Sam just didn’t think that it would have been a good idea. Instead, he left Helen a rather generous tip.

Gabriel was fast asleep and drooling against his shoulder before they had even left the diner.


	4. Chapter 4

**3**

 

Sam had been seriously worried that people would take one look at him and call child protection services or the police before he had stepped into the shop. It seemed that an exhausted and nervous guy with a sleeping baby against his shoulder didn’t turn any heads, though. He supposed that would change once Gabriel wasn’t sleeping anymore.

The past few years, the younger Winchester hadn’t exactly paid attention to parents with their little kids, unless they were a part of a case, but he knew that there was no ignoring a crying baby.

Grabbing a basket by the entrance, Sam decided to make this as quick as possible. He was dead on his feet and in serious need of some sleep, anyway.

He had not counted on the section for baby stuff being as big as it was, though.

“Oh, for crying out loud,” the younger Winchester mumbled unhappily. Even narrowing the shopping list down to clothes and food still left them with a lot of stuff to choose from. At least, the clothes were sorted by the ages they were suitable for. Not that Sam would have known how old Gabriel was supposed to be.

He just took a couple of outfits and held them against the infant’s back until he was rather convinced that clothes for a six months old baby should work.

“Not a good age,” Sam mumbled, but started to look through the outfits on display, anyway.

In the end, he just grabbed a couple of shirts, socks and bibs, all of them adorned with things like cartoon ducks, kittens and muffins. Something else caught his eye and he couldn’t help chuckling as he took the overalls saying ‘sweet little angel’ and put them into the basket, as well.

When he was sure that they were on the safe side clothes-wise he took a quick look at the other things in the aisle. It couldn’t hurt to take a look at the other things normal babies needed to get inspiration for the things that might be necessary for a baby archangel.

Sam wasn’t exactly sure what the current public opinion on pacifiers for infants was, but he had noticed that Gabriel liked to suck on his thumb, so he decided to buy two and also added two baby bottles and formula. It was worth a shot, he supposed. Thinking of things that might be worth a shot, Sam grabbed a package of diapers, just to be on the safe side.

It was then that a dripping wet, tiny hand came up to pat around in the younger Winchester’s face. The archangel apparently was going for a world record in drooling and enjoyed sharing the fruits of his labor with his caretaker.

Well, compared to other things Sam had been covered in before and especially during his time in hell, it wasn’t even that disgusting. The feeling was strange and really not all too welcome, anyway.

“We’re nearly done here,” the younger Winchester told the infant and tried his best not to let the probing fingers get anywhere too close to his eyes, “You sure you don’t want to sleep some more?”

It looked like Gabriel was damn sure about that, however. Instead, he looked around curiously and started to fidget in earnest when he spotted the shelves with the toys. This had to be the moment when all parents knew they were screwed.

Sam sighed deeply, but gave in and went over to the playthings pretty much instantly. He was too tired to have a fight of wills with an infant archangel and it looked like God – or whoever else – had equipped him with enough money so a couple of toys shouldn’t be a problem, anyway.

The first thing Gabriel clearly reacted to was a stuffed plush angel that had to be about half as big as the baby angel was. The younger Winchester could appreciate irony when it basically bit him in the butt, so he added the toy to their shopping basket.

Naively thinking that this was the end of their shopping trip, Sam started to walk toward the checkout, until Gabriel started to reach for something again. A clear plastic ball with a rubber duck swimming on some sort of liquid inside. It was added to their ever growing pile of stuff before the slightly displeased expression on the archangel’s face could turn into a very vocal voicing of annoyance.

“Aren’t you a little young to be so materialistic?” Sam asked with a snort when the infant went on pointing to things he wanted to have. The younger Winchester gave in to the demands for a big picture book, a couple of toy blocks and a toy car before he decided that enough was enough and that he couldn’t carry much more while still holding Gabriel, anyway.

Not surprisingly, the baby wasn’t pleased with them leaving the toy section which he announced loudly to the entire store and probably some parts of the town.

Sam had to hand it to the archangel, he really was persistent! He only stopped crying once the younger Winchester had paid for their things and ripped the price tag from the stuffed angel before he handed it to the infant. There was content silence and some happy gurgling after that, though. If Sam hadn’t been very close to finding a spot where nobody was watching and just leaving the baby there, he might have viewed the little happy noises as more of a reward.

“Gabe, you’re adorable right now, but when we get back to the motel, I’m going to sleep,” the younger Winchester mumbled once they had left the store and were walking back to their current residence, “And if you don’t let me, I’ll just have to kill you.”

The way that Gabriel just snuggled up to the crook of Sam’s neck and planted very wet kisses against his skin once more proved that he didn’t understand a word the younger Winchester was saying, however.

 

* * *

 

 

 

“Tell you what, Sam,” Lucifer whispered right into the human’s ear nearly tenderly, “You’re a good boy now and I’ll go occupy myself with your little brother for a while.”

That was exactly what the devil was a master of – giving the younger Winchester choices that weren’t actual choices at all. Neither could he trust that Lucifer would keep his word, nor was there an option that wouldn’t end very badly for him.

It always was a choice between the devil and the deep blue sea. Even if he decided to trust that the fallen angel was speaking the truth, he could only bring more pain upon himself, or screw the younger half-brother he had never really known over. It might have sounded like an easy choice. It wasn’t Dean they were talking about, after all. Still, Sam had already pulled Adam to the cage alongside himself and the two archangels. He couldn’t add even more to that. There was only so much one person could bear before the possibility to just say ‘fuck it all’ and ‘anyone but me’ became very tempting, though.

“What will it be, Sam?” Lucifer asked, getting a little impatient and digging his talon-like fingernails deeper into the younger Winchester’s flesh, “What will it be _this time_?”

Sam jerked awake, panting heavily. He even had to lift his t-shirt to see for himself that the pain he felt was just in his memory and that there were no wounds there.

It was only then that he even realized what had woken him up.

The younger Winchester got up immediately and stumbled over to the crib where he had put Gabriel to sleep earlier.

They both couldn’t have been asleep for all too long, but Sam didn’t feel like he could have closed his eyes without getting tortured by pictures of Lucifer again, anyway.

The baby archangel’s face was already beet-red from all the wailing he had done when the human picked him up and rocked him gently, making soothing noises. He didn’t know what exactly had gotten the infant to cry his little heart out, but he could still do these little things before he figured the source of Gabriel’s discontentment out.

Bouncing the baby against his shoulder, Sam went to the bag with the things they had bought earlier and unwrapped one of the pacifiers. Sometimes the easier solutions were the right ones, after all.

Gabriel’s sobs had died down a little already. He still accepted the pacifier immediately and sucked on it rather contently. His face was still red and tear streaked, however.

“So, you had a nightmare, too?” Sam asked the infant while he carried him over to the small bathroom. He just felt awkward not saying a word and surely just talking about anything couldn’t do any harm.

“I really got a bad feeling about all of this, Gabriel,” the younger Winchester mumbled as he wet a washcloth with lukewarm water.

The archangel only looked at the tall human curiously at the mention of his name, but otherwise just continued to suck on his pacifier. He let Sam gently wipe his face with the washcloth without complaints, though.

“Let’s just get you into some clean clothes,” the younger Winchester decided after a moment of consideration, “It’s not like we’ve got anything else to do.”

Dean would still take hours to get to them and Gabriel had some of his lunch all over the blue romper suit he was wearing. Honest to God, Sam had meant to take care of that before he had taken a nap, but when they had gotten back to the room he had just been too tired to do anything. He wasn’t trying to win any awards for babysitter of the year, anyway. Simply getting the two of them through until somebody else could take over would have to do.

Getting Gabriel out of his current outfit was easy enough. It was only when Sam had the baby stripped down to his diapers that something occurred to him, though.

“Oh, hell no,” the younger Winchester sighed, “Please, don’t remember this when you’re an adult again.”

Sam had faced all sorts of monsters, demons, angels and the devil himself, but he couldn’t stop his hands from shaking when he reached for the adhesive strips that held the diaper together.

“I need a beer,” the younger Winchester mumbled to himself after the infant had shot him a look like he knew exactly that Sam had no idea what he was even doing there. Yeah, he was getting very paranoid around the baby archangel, but could he really be blamed for that? He was about to undress a freaking archangel of the Lord, even if he was currently a little baby.

The younger Winchester did his very best not to look any more than he absolutely had to. However, Gabriel seemed to fidget even more when he thought he didn’t have his caretaker’s full attention, so he bit the bullet and more or less stared the infant down.

“Okay, threatening you is getting old fast, but just let me say that a circle of holy oil will be the least of your concerns, if I find out that you’re doing all this for shits and giggles,” the younger Winchester told the baby seriously, but in a voice that wasn’t meant to be intimidating.

When Sam put the old diaper aside, he noticed that either the archangel didn’t have the normal bodily functions a baby did, or he hadn’t had them yet, anyway.

Great, so he had a buck-naked Gabriel at his hands for absolutely nothing!

The tall human exhaled soundly and pushed his embarrassment and annoyance aside. He had started this, now he had to finish it, too!

The younger Winchester sighed relieved when he finished fastening the new diaper. He pulled a shirt with a cartoon muffin over Gabriel’s head, and the elastic blue pants went into place easily enough as well. All in all, Sam thought that he had done reasonably well, given the circumstances.

“You got the wrong Winchester, Gabe,” he mused, picking the plush angel up from the crib and wiggling it in front of the tiny archangel, “Dean’s the one that has at least some experience with babies.”

Gabriel seemed to be rather content with his caretaker however, if the way he was squealing happily from his place on the bed was any indication.

Sam smiled slightly and held the toy angel over the infant’s head for a little while which seemingly fascinated the little one. His big brown eyes were glued to the toy and he nearly forgot to suck on his pacifier as he watched.

The younger Winchester chuckled silently at that. “Do you think baby angels can fly? I don’t know. We’d have to ask-”

The plush angel fell from his hand without Sam noticing as he was violently assaulted by memories. He pressed his palms against his temples, feeling like his head was going to explode any moment now.

“Cas,” the younger Winchester breathed when the pain let up a little.

The picture of Castiel exploding into a million tiny pieces was as fresh on his mind as if it had only happened minutes ago. The holy fire Molotov cocktail the angel had thrown at Michael, Lucifer snapping his fingers and Bobby’s scared expression. Bobby…

“No, no, no, no, no!” Sam yelled at no one in particular as the rest of the scene played out in his mind.

How could he have forgotten about that? He had even tried to call Bobby just a few hours ago and hadn’t thought anything of Dean picking up instead of the older hunter. He had, no, Lucifer had killed Castiel and Bobby and Sam had let it happen! And now he just had to add insult to injury by forgetting all about it!

The younger Winchester didn’t even notice that tears were running over his cheeks, but he finally realized that Gabriel was wailing, terrified. He reached for the scared infant with a shaking hand and gently patted his head a couple of times before he could bring himself to pull the baby archangel into his lap.

“If you knew what was good for you, you’d stay away from me,” Sam whispered around the lump in his throat.

Gabriel only grabbed the younger Winchester’s shirt and held on for dear life, however.


	5. Chapter 5

**4**

 

Dean and Bobby had just spent a little less than fourteen incredibly tense hours in the Impala and it had done nothing good to the mood of either man.

The older Winchester might have said that he didn’t believe that his brother had asked him to come and pick him up in Walkerville, but Bobby could clearly see that Dean had gotten his hopes up and wasn’t really prepared to be disappointed. He probably wouldn’t even realize just how much hope he had put into this until it got crushed under the hard, cold evidence that his younger brother was still trapped in hell and the phone call had come from some sort of monster.

The older Winchester had adamantly refused to talk about any ifs or buts and had turned the radio on at the first sign of Bobby looking for a conversation like that, though. He had switched it off again just minutes later, because listening to the usual tapes made him realize just how much he missed the familiar presence of Sam next to him all the more. Dean still loved the Impala to a level that a lot of people – who could all go and screw themselves, thank you very much – would call unhealthy or obsessive, but at the same time he couldn’t quite stand it anymore. Too many memories were attached to that car and it didn’t matter much if they were positive or negative at this point.

Both hunters had to admit that they were just a little surprised by how normal the hotel looked, once they had reached it. It was the middle of the night, but the parking lot and the motel itself was neither eerily quiet nor was there too much going on.

It wasn’t exactly reassuring when the place they were called to went by the name of Crossroads motel, though.

Of course, this didn’t have to mean a thing, but what were the chances that they of all people should ever be so lucky?

Dean checked his weapons over once more and got out of the Impala first. He was itching just to find out what all this really was about. The older Winchester figured that he would be able to handle anything better than the uncertainty they were currently operating under.

If what he found was his brother that would be the preferable option. Dean didn’t want to think about it to a greater extent however, because it just was too unlikely.

But, if they found anyone or anything else, he would at least have someone or something to take his anger out on. The son of a bitch would get to regret ever messing with Dean Winchester for a long time before he would show mercy and kill him, that was for sure.

The two hunters stood on either side of the doorframe, Dean being on the one that would be seen first when the door was opened.

The younger man gave Bobby a tight nod and raised his fist to knock, half expecting that nothing at all would happen. And wouldn’t that completely ruin his mood? Dean didn’t expect much, but he really expected to kick someone’s ass, at least.

It took much longer than he was comfortable with until the door was unlocked and finally opened.

Yes, Dean had been prepared for the thing to look like his brother, but actually seeing it, complete with the lost puppy dog expression, gave a very painful sting to his heart. He vowed to make the monster pay some more for that.

“Dean -,“ Sam started, but was promptly interrupted when his brother raised a hand to silence him. The younger Winchester nodded slightly and stepped aside to let the other man enter.

That was when he came face to face with someone he really hadn’t expected to see. Relief flooded Sam, even though a small part of him was whispering that this was impossible and too good to be true.

“Bobby,” the younger Winchester smiled happily before confusion took over for good, “But you… I… Lucifer killed you.”

Of course, Sam was meant to be in the cage with the devil and Gabriel should have been an adult, a _dead_ adult. The younger Winchester knew that he couldn’t even hope to make sense of all these things, at least until other matters were dealt with, though.

The two other men were still looking at him stony-faced.

Dean was the one of them who took the first step and handed a silver knife to the man who looked like his younger brother. The older Winchester refused to call him by the name of his brother until they were done with the tests.

Sam extended his arm to take the blade slowly, but then made a neat cut into the flesh of his left arm without batting an eye. He had had worse, so much worse, but he was trying very hard not to let his mind go into details about any of those occasions.

It was good to see that Dean’s expression had softened ever so slightly when he handed the flask of holy water over next. When drinking from it didn’t trigger any sort of reaction from the other man he allowed himself to think that he was actually looking at his brother for the first time.

“Sammy,” Dean whispered, not giving the other man the time to say anything before he hugged him.

The younger Winchester wrapped his arms around his brother’s shoulders tightly in turn. They remained standing like that for a few long moments. If there was a time for chick-flick moments, it was the resurrection of a family member, after all.

Next to them Bobby scratched the side of his head. He’d have liked to say that stranger things had happened to them before, but he was pretty sure that this took the cake.

The older hunter had only just finished the thought when a soft whine reached his ears.

Sam kicked into gear immediately and went to the crib to put the lost pacifier back into Gabriel’s mouth so he could continue to sleep uninterrupted.

He had noticed rather quickly that there were two things the baby was constantly searching for and when he had neither, he’d scream his little lungs out for sure. The first was being in contact with Sam in some way. He preferred to be held, but he’d settled for a gentle pat on the head, as well. The second was having something to suck on. It wasn’t all that surprising that the archangel seemed to have an oral fixation looking at how his adult self had always stuffed sweets into his mouth, as well.

Dean and Bobby were watching the scene not knowing what to make of it.

“I’ll be damned,” the older hunter stated finally. He was actually very tempted to draw his gun again, but that seemed like an overreaction, if only barely.

The older Winchester nodded dumbly. He thought he understood why Sam hadn’t mentioned this on the phone. Dean had been seriously tempted to just hang up and drown himself in alcohol until he forgot everything about the talk with someone he had been convinced couldn’t have been his brother, as things had been. Hearing some insane story about a baby wouldn’t have made that better. A rather disturbing thought wouldn’t leave him alone when he caught sight of the blonde mop of hair the baby possessed, however.

“Sam,” Dean started in a demanding tone, “Tell me we don’t have Rosemary’s baby on our hands!”

The younger Winchester seriously considered pointing out that Rosemary’s baby had been the child of the devil and not the devil himself. He assumed that Dean had just asked if they had a babyfied Lucifer sleeping peacefully in a portacrib in the corner, anyway. They had better things to discuss than the plot of some movie, so he bit back the comment, though.

“It’s Gabriel,” Sam replied with a deep sigh instead, preparing himself for trying to explain something he couldn’t explain. All he had were bits and pieces of an assumption that didn’t even fit together to form a bigger picture, yet.

“Gabriel is dead,” Dean replied disbelievingly and got pointed looks from his brother and Bobby for his little outburst. Okay, he was surrounded by people who were supposed to be dead, so that really didn’t have to mean anything. Still, adding a previously dead archangel to the mix was a little too much and he wasn’t even touching the part where Gabriel apparently was a baby, yet.

“I don’t know how any of this happened, either,” Sam shrugged a little helplessly, “I just woke up here yesterday morning and he was there, too.”

It wasn’t like he had received an instruction manual or anything alike. Well, he had received some money and a crib to go along with his new duties as a babysitter, but that had been it and neither of those things explained a lot.

“Alright,” Bobby nodded slightly, “We’ll figure this out. But most importantly, how are you holding up?”

The younger Winchester had only just come back from a very special place in hell he had shared with Lucifer and Michael, after all. It looked like he had somehow been restored in full physical health, but that didn’t have to mean anything and Bobby wanted to hear the young man say how he was doing instead of just drawing conclusions from how things looked.

“Surprisingly good,” the younger Winchester replied quickly, not quite meeting the older hunter’s eyes. It was true, he was doing better than he would have expected, but that didn’t mean that he weren’t a lot of issues that would eventually need to be dealt with. They would have to figure out who had brought them back and why and he also had the nagging feeling that the few short, unpleasant flashbacks he had had this far were just the tip of the iceberg.

“I am okay,” Sam reaffirmed when the other two gave him seriously doubtful looks, “Sure, I could be better, but everything’s fine considering…”

The younger Winchester trailed off not wanting to open that particular can of worms at that point in time, however. Maybe they’d have to talk about it eventually, but he saw no reason to force the subject now.

Neither Dean nor Bobby were convinced, but they both had to admit that this wasn’t the place or the time to discuss the situation in detail.

“I say we all get some shuteye and then get back to my place in the morning,” Bobby suggested in a tone that made clear that he had made up his mind about this and expected the others to simply agree. They had just driven for about fourteen hours straight and it was past midnight, so going back immediately was out of the question, anyway.

Given the late hour they decided to share the room Sam and Gabriel had occupied and the ‘You do realize how old I am?’ argument won Bobby the right to sleep on the bed. The younger Winchester gave the ratty old couch up to his brother gladly. Dean would be the one driving, so he was the one who needed the rest more. He didn’t mention that he didn’t think he’d be able to sleep, anyway. That Gabriel would wake up and demand food or something else eventually finally convinced the older Winchester, too.

About an hour later Dean and Bobby had both found their way into dreamland while Sam was just lying on the floor, looking toward the crib every now and then. That way he didn’t miss when the infant scrunched up his tiny face and then blinked awake. The younger Winchester was ready to pick him up before he could have started to scream for his caretaker to come and look after him.

After having to figure out how exactly preparing a bottle of formula worked with a crying infant against his shoulder earlier, Sam found doing the same with a still half asleep baby snuggling against him much easier. He hadn’t counted on Gabriel suddenly deciding that formula was okay for an early evening snack but not so much for a very early morning one, however. What came as a real surprise was that the baby archangel didn’t try to solve his problem by screaming until somebody did something about his exasperation, but instead made a dish with applesauce that looked exactly like the one he had had in the diner appear. At least Sam wouldn’t have known where else it had suddenly come from.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” the younger Winchester mumbled. As if having a baby around wasn’t hard enough, it just had to be a baby with angelic powers that actually worked.

At least, they had been able to avoid waking everyone else up and it was somewhat good to know that they weren’t going to run out of things to feed the archangel with anytime soon. Also, it had been a harmless way to get warned of impending doom and Sam was damn sure that once Gabriel had really figured out what he could do, they’d all be in deep shit.

The younger Winchester took the dish and the baby back to the crib where he sat on the floor, the infant in his lap, and started to feed him.

“Just don’t start to smite people at random, okay?” Sam mumbled, rubbing the infant’s back absentmindedly.

Hopefully, Gabriel wouldn’t even know what smiting was at this point. They’d still have to figure out a way to get this under control sooner rather than later, however. There just had to be some spell or sigil to keep Gabriel’s powers locked up in some book in Bobby’s library and they would have to find it.

When Dean woke up hours later, he was greeted by the sight of his giant of a little brother snoozing in a sitting position with the baby archangel held firmly against his chest.

Things in general might have been seriously messed up, but the older Winchester couldn’t help himself and just had to follow his instincts, so he reached for his cell phone and snapped a picture of them.


	6. Chapter 6

**5**

 

“Stop looking at me like that already!” Dean demanded, unnerved by the looks his younger brother was shooting him through the rearview window from the backseat of the Impala. “You said it yourself, he’s got his powers still. It’s not like he’s easy to kill. And I’m not crashing my baby, anyway!”

Sam huffed and readjusted his grip on the infant archangel for the hundredth time since they had left the parking lot of the motel.

“I’d really like to see you explain that to the cop who’s going to pull us over for endangering a minor,” the younger Winchester stated sarcastically.

Okay, he hadn’t thought of buying a car seat for Gabriel when they had gone shopping the other day, but he had been overly tired and completely on his own with a baby then. Dean really could just have taken the short stop at the store Sam had requested before they hit the interstate, but for the reasons he had just stated again the older Winchester had thought that was completely unnecessary.

“Jerk,” the younger Winchester muttered and stroked Gabriel’s hair gently when the infant fixed his big golden-brown eyes on him.

“Idjits,” Bobby groaned, already wishing that he had brought his own car after less than half an hour on the road with both Winchesters. Surprisingly, the archangel was the calmest and most quiet one of them this far and that should have given the two young men something to think about.

“It’s so great to have the family back together again,” Dean stated sarcastically, but the smile on his face betrayed his tone. There was no place he’d rather be and no company he’d rather be in and while that didn’t include Gabriel, the archangel wasn’t a nuisance this far, either.

“Speaking of which,” Sam cleared his throat awkwardly, “Bobby, how did you…?”

The younger Winchester was rather sure that the things Lucifer had made him witness before they had been trapped in the cage had actually happened the way he had seen them. So for all he knew Bobby was meant to be dead. Sam was more than simply glad that he wasn’t, but he still wanted to know what had happened.

“Your feathery friend brought me back,” the older hunter answered with a small shrug, “And God brought him back, for all we know.”

Sam blinked a couple of times before he was able to really process what he had just heard. Castiel was alive, as well. The younger Winchester couldn’t stop a short, relieved laugh from escaping his lips.

Gabriel had watched his caretaker intently and squealed happily around his pacifier, reaching for Sam’s face with a tiny hand. He clearly preferred it when the tall human was showing some happiness

It wasn’t the first time that the younger Winchester wondered if his mood was influencing the baby archangel more than it would with a normal baby. He knew, of course, that any feelings the attachment figure of a young child showed were having an effect on them in some way. Sometimes it looked like Gabriel had something like a sixth sense for Sam’s moods, however.

In the end, the question of the possible extent of the infant’s powers was one the humans would not be able to figure out completely between themselves, most surely.

“We really need to tell Cas about this,” Sam stated after a few moments of consideration. The angel might at least have an idea of what the hell was going on with his brother. Maybe he’d even know who had pulled the younger Winchester from hell, or he might confirm that God had had something to do with it.

“Yeah, good luck with calling him,” Dean cleared his throat, feeling a little awkward, “He might be seriously pissed at me right now.”

Or rather, the angel was really upset about something the older Winchester had said and Dean knew it. He had tried to contact Castiel numerous times after their last talk, but the angel hadn’t reacted in any way. If you asked Dean, Cas was acting like a prima donna about something the older Winchester had done while highly upset and possibly still a little drunk. But maybe the hunter felt a little bad about the entire thing, too.

“What happened?” Sam asked worriedly. It wasn’t like Castiel to get mad at Dean all too easily, at least not the point of ignoring his calls.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Dean grumbled. He sort of knew that he would have to talk about it eventually, however. After all, the rant that had driven Cas away had involved Sam and Gabriel and how unfair it was that they were dead. Now they weren’t anymore and that could hardly be a coincidence!

“Dean,” the younger Winchester sighed. If something had happened then he wanted and needed to know. They had a freaking baby angel on their hands and there was only one angel they knew who might help them with figuring out what had happened. They couldn’t just ignore that because of some petty argument!

“I don’t want to talk about it, dammit!” Dean replied loudly, hitting the steering wheel in frustration.

Gabriel immediately started to cry.

“Well done,” Sam mumbled, annoyed. He tried to calm the infant down by rubbing his back gently and waggling his plush angel in front of his nose, but the wails wouldn’t die down.

“Sure, that’s my fault now,” the older Winchester snorted.

“You were the one that started to get loud!” Sam argued as hotly as he could without raising his voice. Gabriel’s cries grew in volume anyway.

The younger Winchester collected the pacifier from where it had fallen to the seats when the baby had started to bawl in honest and tried to offer it back to him, but the angel wouldn’t accept it.

“Pull over,” Bobby demanded after a few more minutes of tense silence between the brothers and miserable wailing from the infant.

Dean obeyed, but mostly because he couldn’t quite stand being in the car with an upset baby any longer. It didn’t help that he couldn’t quite explain why he had gotten this annoyed with his younger brother, but felt really irritated, anyway.

As soon as the car was parked by the side of the road, Dean got outside. He really didn’t want to have to discuss about whether he would or wouldn’t drive off without them, if Sam and Gabriel were the ones getting out. The very prospect of his younger brother accusing him of planning something like that made his mood worse already, too.

The younger Winchester sighed deeply, but pulled himself together quickly and picked Gabriel up from his place on his lap and held him against his shoulder. After some more gentle rubbing of the infants back and making soothing noises, the baby archangel was ready to accept his pacifier back.

“That’s a good boy,” Sam whispered to the infant, continuing to rub his back.

Gabriel was breathing a little too hard still, but he was calming down rapidly and rest his head against his caretaker’s shoulder.

“Thanks, Bobby,” the younger Winchester finally said silently, “I don’t even know… Didn’t take us long to be at each other’s throat.”

It really bothered Sam how quickly they had gotten into an argument, even if it hadn’t actually been all that bad. Without Gabriel’s crying adding to the stress levels they’d have calmed down again quickly, he was sure. Not that he blamed the baby for what had happened, but it surely had been one factor among others. The main factors being that a lot of things had happened to both brothers in the past weeks they had spent apart and they hadn’t had the chance to clear some things up, yet.

“You two wouldn’t be the boys I know if it were any different,” Bobby stated with a hint of humor, “And before you ask, I have no idea what ruffled feathers’ feathers, either.”

The younger Winchester nodded slightly and let the baby archangel sit in his lap again. He seemed completely calm, if a little tired, again. It looked like he was very sensitive as far as conflicts were concerned which wasn’t all that surprising thinking of his adult self’s reasons for leaving heaven.

“Alright, let’s just get back to your place in one piece,” Sam replied with a small smile, “We can talk there… or tear each other apart. Whatever happens first.”

 

* * *

 

 

“Come on, you need something healthy, too!” the younger Winchester told the baby archangel who stubbornly refused to open his mouth for some baby carrots.

He had already gotten some applesauce and thus wasn’t all too hungry, but it seemed that he still wanted to eat, only not the thing the tall human was offering him.

“Sammy, there’s at least one thing terrorists, demons and babies have in common,” Dean stated seriously, “You don’t try to bargain with them!”

Bobby looked rather amused, but Sam only raised an eyebrow at his brother. The second eyebrow shot up as well when the older Winchester reached over the table and pinched Gabriel’s tiny nose between his fore- and middle finger until the infant surely couldn’t breathe through his nose anymore.

“Relax,” Dean stated toward his younger brother who looked like he was about to object to this treatment of the baby angel any second now, “Did that to you all the time when you were little and you grew up fine. He’ll have to open his mouth eventually now!”

Sam didn’t know which part of what was going on he wanted to comment on first, so he settled for giving his brother a very annoyed look that Dean would dub a bitchface for sure. The younger Winchester was pretty sure that this was no way to treat a little baby! And he was pretty sure that Dean was a jerk for having done the same to him when he had been this small and defenseless!

Bobby lifted his cap to better scratch the side of his head after a few seconds. “Doesn’t look like this one needs to breathe,” he commented with a frown. It was slightly amusing to watch the smug look the younger Winchester shot his brother at that revelation, however.

“People are starting to look at us!” Sam hissed after some more seconds of Dean trying to will the baby archangel to take a breath already, for all it looked like.

“This isn’t over yet, squab!” the older Winchester told the infant in a slightly threatening tone as he sat back again.

Gabriel looked completely unaffected and turned his big brown eyes to Sam and pouted until the younger Winchester gave up on the carrots and went back to the applesauce. Those eyes combined with that pout could have gotten all the world leaders to agree on a peace treaty and nuclear disarmament in no time, so Sam really stood no chance against them.

“Son, you just threatened a baby,” Bobby pointed out, shaking his head.

Dean could barely refrain from insisting that Gabriel had started it. Technically, a couple of years ago even.

“Uncle Dean is being very childish,” the younger Winchester told the infant seriously as he fed him another spoonful of applesauce. Gabriel obviously didn’t care as long as he was being fed and got some attention.

“If I’m uncle Dean, that makes you his daddy,” Dean shot back without missing a beat. Hey, Sam had brought that one upon himself!

The younger Winchester failed to come up with a good comeback to that statement, but he was saved by the bell when the waitress approached them to ask if they wanted anything more. She didn’t really care about the answer to her question as soon as she caught sight of the infant, however. Her colleague had suffered a similar fate, earlier.

“Awww, he’s so precious!” she cooed and leaned forward so much that Sam got into much closer contact with her breasts than he had ever expected to be. He wasn’t really appreciating it, though.

“What’s your name, sweetheart?” the woman went on and gently pinched Gabriel’s cheek which made the infant hide his face in the younger Winchester’s shirt.

“Gabriel, his name’s Gabriel,” Sam answered the question, petting the baby’s head gently in an attempt to keep him from complaining, “He’s a little… shy.”

Dean just had to snort at that. There was no way he could listen to his brother calling this particular archangel shy without showing how ridiculous he thought that was! Hell, if he had still been an adult, Gabriel would most surely have been hitting on the waitress, already. That and ordering every single desert they had on the menu. Actually, the second wasn’t such a bad idea, if he could get the attention of the woman for long enough to order some pie, that was.

Dean cleared his throat noisily which didn’t work at all, so decided to just talk instead. “What kind of pie do you have?”

“Apple, blueberry and cherry,” the waitress replied without taking her eyes off the baby who had started to look back at her curiously while still hiding most of his face in Sam’s shirt.

Dean Winchester was being overshadowed by an infant archangel and he couldn’t quite believe it.

“A piece of the cherry pie then,” the older Winchester ordered with not quite as much enthusiasm as he usually would. Sure, the pie was awesome, but the fact that he couldn’t even catch a little of the waitress’ attention wasn’t.

“Cup of coffee,” Bobby ordered, apparently rather amused by the ongoings not that he’d show it all too clearly.

Sam just shook his head slightly when the waitress gave him a questioning look, so the woman smiled, patted Gabriel’s head once more and went to get their orders.

“Dude, a six months old just totally stole the show from you,” the younger Winchester chuckled once she was far enough from them not to hear anything.

“Are we sure he’s not using some of his mojo?” Dean asked with a snort. Everything was possible with the tricky little bastard, after all!

The other two men just shook their heads at that statement.

“Can he have some pudding?” the waitress asked Sam after she had unceremoniously put the pie and the coffee down. She was holding a little bowl with chocolate pudding and a spoon and looked at the younger Winchester so hopeful that he couldn’t really say no.

Gabriel’s happy squeal after he had received the first spoonful of pudding made Sam wonder if Dean didn’t have a point after all, though.


	7. Chapter 7

**6**

 

“Brat,” Dean mumbled as he put his bag next to the bed that was closer to the door of their motel room.

The baby archangel had decided that he couldn’t stand to be in the car any longer about four hours before they would have reached Sioux Falls, so the older Winchester had had to give in and stop for the night. Or rather, Bobby and Sam had forced him to. They hadn’t thought that simply turning the music loud enough so Gabriel’s little lungs didn’t stand a chance anymore was a good option for some reason.

“He’s just a baby,” Sam sighed once more and tried his best not to damage anything with the portacrib and the bags he had had to bring on top of carrying the infant around, “A little help here?”

Dean snorted, but didn’t say anything. It was an argument they didn’t have to have that very moment. The older Winchester wouldn’t have said that Gabriel was just a baby, though. Even if the little pigeon didn’t show it too clearly yet, he had angelic powers in him and that made him more of a disaster waiting to happen than a baby.

He took the crib from Sam and unfolded it for him after a moment, though. There was nothing they could do other than deal with the circumstances as they were, anyway.

Bobby had insisted on his own room this time and neither of the two brothers could blame him for that. Actually, Sam wouldn’t have blamed his brother for insisting on getting three rooms or sharing one with Bobby, either.

The younger Winchester put the infant into the crib and was insanely relieved when Gabriel just sat there, his pacifier firmly between his lips and didn’t complain. As cute as he was, Sam already started to forget what it was like not to have a baby held against him the entire time and that was unsettling him.

“Can you watch him for five minutes?” the taller man asked a little pleadingly, “I need a shower.”

Predictably, Dean wasn’t too happy with the request, but he had to acknowledge that he would be the one who would have to deal with his brother’s bitching about him not babysitting as well as him stinking up the place.

“Whatever, but don’t you go and wash your hair, princess,” the older Winchester replied, “I won’t be babysitting that long!”

Sam huffed, but only shook his head and said nothing. This was his brother as he lived and breathed and if there was something the younger Winchester craved more than the shower he had just been allowed to take it was some normalcy. He quickly took a change of clothes from the bag Dean had brought for him, just in case.

Before he went to the little bathroom for good he grabbed the toy car Gabriel had made him buy and passed it over to his brother.

“There’s something you’ve got in common, try to bond over it!” Sam suggested with a small grin and closed the door behind himself.

“Dude, it’s a bug!” Dean called after his brother exasperatedly. He refused to make a connection with the infant over their love for cars when the archangel’s car of choice was a VW beetle!

The older Winchester didn’t have a problem with little kids, in general. He liked them well enough and he got along with them mostly. Hell, he had practically raised Sam when he had still been a kid himself.

His problem with the archangel baby wasn’t the part where he was a baby, really. Okay, his opinion of Gabriel had changed slightly for the better after the Elysian Fields hotel, but he just didn’t trust the bastard any further than he could throw him. Right now, he could have thrown him relatively far though, he supposed.

“You know, you’ve always been small, but this is ridiculous!” Dean told the baby with an amused snort and patted his head gently once. He immediately took his hand away when the baby angel looked like he wasn’t all too happy with the contact, however. The older Winchester really didn’t want to be the one to figure out how much of Gabriel’s power remained and how he would use it if provoked.

After watching the infant play with the plastic ball with the duck inside and the car some more he decided that he really didn’t need to stand there like an idiot and stare at the baby. Instead he grabbed a few things from his duffle bag and started to clean his gun at the ramshackle table the motel had provided them with.

In the meantime, Sam tried to make the shower as quick as possible, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to turn the water off. He didn’t think he had ever enjoyed a simple shower just as much as he did that very moment. Some warm water couldn’t solve his problems, but it made him feel more relaxed and as if all the issues he’d eventually have to deal with were just a little further away. Of course, everything had to come to an end eventually.

The younger Winchester made quick work of drying himself and getting into a fresh t-shirt and trunks to make up for the extra time he had spent in the shower a little, at least.

He looked at the little archangel and smiled slightly. Apparently, Dean had jumped over his own shadow.

“When did you get Gabstiel inside?” Sam asked, slightly amused. He patted Gabriel’s head automatically and smiled when the archangel leaned into the touch, looking up at him with adoring eyes. He didn’t quite know how he deserved to be looked at like that, but he could barely ask the angel as things were.

“Who or what the hell is a Gabstiel?” Dean replied with a deep frown. He finished putting the gun back together again and turned to look at his younger brother. The two newly resurrected men – one man and a baby, really – made a cute picture. He could admit that much, if only to himself.

“The plush angel. Blond hair, blue eyes,” Sam shrugged, “I dubbed him Gabstiel.”

Gabriel was indeed chewing on one of his toy angel’s wings and Dean tried to remember if the toy had been there before. It was obvious that his younger brother thought that it hadn’t been.

“I didn’t,” the older Winchester answered, “You must have brought the thing.”

He still grabbed the keys to the Impala and headed outside. He wasn’t quite sure what he expected to find since the toy was clearly inside, but his instincts told him to just go and take a look. Being a good hunter was always part instinct.

When Dean returned not more than a minute later he had a perfect replica of the toy Gabriel was still chewing around on in his hands.

“He even got the pudding stain right,” the older Winchester pointed out casually and threw the second plush angel over to his younger brother.

Sam looked at the toy in his hands and then to the one Gabriel was holding and sighed. He had known that something like this could only be a matter of time, but the archangel must have figured out the connection between wanting something and just making it appear out of thin air much faster than the younger Winchester would have thought.

“So, what are you going to call that one? Lucifer?” Dean asked, chuckling. He realized that he had just made a grave mistake even before he saw the expression that crossed his brother’s face. Sam put on his mask of detachment just a moment later, even though neither one of them was convinced by it, anyway.

The younger Winchester put the toy next to Gabriel into the crib mainly so he didn’t have to look back at his brother anymore and was a little surprised when the archangel’s tiny hands reached for his arm. The baby looked back at his caretaker with a quizzical expression and finally leaned in to rub his head against Sam’s forearm.

“Talk to me, Sammy,” Dean demanded, albeit in a rather soft tone.

The younger Winchester did not turn around and just kept petting Gabriel’s hair with his free hand silently for so long that his brother didn’t expect to get anything out of him anymore.

“You’ve been to hell, Dean,” Sam replied silently, “I don’t think I could tell you anything you don’t know already.”

Not that he’d really know, because the older Winchester had refused to speak about his time in hell rather adamantly. Bits and pieces had been uncovered over time, but Sam didn’t have a clear picture, not by any means.

That was exactly the sort of hypocrite Dean was, too. He wanted to keep his secrets, but his younger brother didn’t have the right to do the same.

The younger Winchester sighed deeply and tried to ban those thoughts from his mind. He knew he was being unfair and he knew he didn’t want to argue, so he’d better stop winding himself up.

“Fine, but if you want to talk… y’know,” Dean stated with a short shrug. He wasn’t going to beat Sam into sharing his experiences. Yet. He would if he saw any clearer signs that his younger brother was being eaten alive by holding things inside.

“Yeah, thanks,” the younger Winchester replied with a small and rather fake smile. He actually couldn’t imagine talking about his time in the cage anytime soon. In fact, there just were so many things he didn’t even think he could have expressed in words if he had wanted to. Sure, he had been disappointed when Dean hadn’t wanted to confide in him after he had come back from his time in hell, but he had a whole new understanding for the situation now.

“Look, I just want to get Gabe into his pajamas and go to sleep,” Sam added after a moment to make sure that it was absolutely clear that no talk about anything important was going to happen that night, if it was for him. Dean should be glad about it, actually. It also meant that Sam wasn’t going to ask any questions about the things his brother had done and what the hell had happened between him and Castiel, after all.

It was only the second time that the younger Winchester got the baby archangel into different clothes, but he felt it was much easier this time around. It probably helped that he didn’t fear that Gabriel might break quite as much as he used to anymore.

“Did you get him anything at all that isn’t all cutesy and girly?” Dean snorted after he had taken one look at the grinning kitten on the pajamas. First the cartoon muffins, now cartoony grinning kittens with huge eyes. The older Winchester would have sworn that the cat was staring at him judgmentally, too.

“Like what? A leather jacket?” Sam huffed and exchanged the pacifier Gabriel was sucking on with the second one, vowing to himself to clean the other one with some hot water before they hit the road again.

“Would be a good start,” Dean replied seriously and watched with a mix of bewilderment and amusement as his younger brother cradled the infant, apparently trying to rock him to sleep, “He’s a short, sarcastic, class-clown. There’s no need to add badly dressed to the list.”

The younger Winchester didn’t point out that his brother was talking about the Gabriel they had known instead of the baby they had on their hands now, but in his mind he had already started to differentiate between those two versions of the archangel. The infant might have shared a few characteristics with the adult version, but he clearly wasn’t sarcastic, that much of a class-clown, or all too short for his age, yet.

“Next time uncle Dean comes along for the shopping,” Sam told the baby seriously before he put him back into the crib and handed one of his plush angels to him. He continued to pet Gabriel’s hair until he was pretty sure that the infant would stay put and then watched as he closed his eyes, his little chest rising and falling with slow, deep breaths.

“Still with the uncle Dean crap?” the older Winchester asked with a raised eyebrow.

They both knew that he wasn’t too comfortable with seeing just how much Sam and Gabriel were latching on to each other and to be completely honest, Sam wasn’t sure how comfortable he was with that himself. But that would have to be a conversation for another time, too.

The younger Winchester just shrugged and prepared to go to bed himself. Yes, it would help to evade any discussions, but he also felt very tired. Damn, if there was one thing he had felt more than enough of the past two days it was tiredness. Tiredness and confusion, really.

Dean shook his head quietly and went to get changed, too. When he came back from the bathroom – let’s face it, changing in front of Sam was one thing, but changing in front of Gabriel was out of the question – he took a couple of moments to look at his younger brother’s sleeping form. The older Winchester felt nothing but glad to have him back, but he still couldn’t shake off the feeling that something was very wrong about the entire situation. Well, wrongness he could deal with, not having his brother, not so much.


	8. Chapter 8

**7**

 

Secretly, Sam found that he could get used to Gabriel looking at him like he was the greatest thing in all of creation, even if he knew the look came mostly from the fact that he was holding the spoon that would get the pudding from the container to the infant’s mouth.

Secretly, Sam found that he could get used to having the baby around. Period.

He knew, or suspected, what Dean thought of all of this and a part of the younger Winchester thought his brother was very right about it, too. This wasn’t how things were supposed to be and there was no place for an infant in their lives, but with every hour Sam spent trying to do his new role as the guardian of a babyfied Gabriel justice, he got more and more used to it. In fact, a part of him – the part he was trying to ignore desperately, because it made him very uncomfortable – was prepared to just roll with it and keep doing this for another while.

Yes, it would be better for all of them if they could find a solution to the situation very soon!

Luckily they were getting ever closer to Bobby’s house and thus to their second best chance to figure out what the hell had happened. The best would have been asking Castiel, of course. Sam did not want to push that topic again before he absolutely had to, though.

“You get pudding on the upholstery and you both can walk the rest of the way,” Dean threatened seriously. He was fully prepared to go through with the threat, too. He couldn’t just throw Gabriel out, so Sam would have to leave the car, too. Besides, they were just around the corner from Bobby’s at that point, anyway.

In the end, they were all still in the car when they reached their destination and Gabriel was well fed and content.

This time Dean grabbed the portacrib and Sam’s bag to carry them inside. He might not have liked the situation they were in, but he couldn’t make his younger brother pay for something that ultimately wasn’t his fault all the time, either.

“Don’t forget any of the toys,” the older Winchester called to his brother when he emerged from the car with the baby against his shoulder and the bag with Gabriel’s things in his other hand, “We don’t want him to duplicate any more of them!”

Actually, they had agreed that they should do everything to discourage the infant’s use of his powers. They had even stopped to get applesauce, pudding and more formula to give to the archangel on demand, so he wouldn’t have a reason to will some into existence.

Bobby shook his head slightly with a sigh and unlocked the front door. This had to be one of the strangest situations they had been in, yet. Oh, the older hunter was more than glad that the younger Winchester had returned from the dead once more. He had had some time to watch Dean systematically destroy himself over the loss of his brother and hopefully that would be a thing of the past now. The angelic infant promised to be trouble, though.

Bobby didn’t get to mull these things over in his mind any longer, because this was the moment when they came face to face with a stranger.

Both hunters immediately dropped the bags they were holding and aimed their guns at the blonde man with the utterly unimpressed expression and general posture. If they had been unsure that he had to be anything but human, they would have figured as much that moment the latest.

“This is the moment where I leave,” the man stated completely casually with an easily noticeable British accent.

It also was the moment when Sam stepped into the house, however.

“Or maybe I’ll stay a while,” he added, clearly looking at the younger Winchester and the baby he was carrying. It seemed like he couldn’t quite decide if he was amused, surprised or shocked, though. He settled for amused after a short moment of consideration.

“Who the fuck are you?” Dean demanded to know, never lowering his gun, even though chances were it wouldn’t do that much against whoever the hell the son of a bitch was.

“A pal of one of your pals,” the stranger shrugged, “So, by extension, your friend as well.”

As if the older Winchester had needed even more reasons to mistrust the guy, he just couldn’t give a straightforward answer. Then again, he probably knew that an answer of that sort would get him shot immediately.

“Balthazar?” a deep and very familiar voice finally cleared the questions about the stranger’s name and who that friend he had been talking about was up.

The way Castiel held on to the doorframe like his life depended on it and the very ashen complexion of the angel brought up new questions immediately, though. They would have to wait for a little while, however.

Balthazar was at the other angel’s side in the blink of an eye and slung one of Castiel’s arms around his shoulders to better support him before he walked him back to Bobby’s living room where the dark-haired angel must have been resting until very recently. At least it looked like Castiel had occupied the couch for some time before the humans had arrived.

“What the hell is going on here?” Dean nearly exploded when nobody made an effort to explain anything after a couple of moments.

“I was about to ask the same,” Balthazar shot back and indicated the baby angel with a movement of his head. If you asked him, the story behind an infant that also was an angel was bound to be much more interesting than the story behind an injured angel. You could find injured angels everywhere these days, baby angels not so much.

“I asked first,” Dean insisted and gave Castiel a hard look, because he was the one he really wanted to talk to. First, the angel just ignored all his calls for days and then he suddenly showed up looking worse for the wear and with one of his friends. There had to be an explanation for all that!

“A dispute between myself and Raphael,” Castiel answered with a pained expression and then added surprisingly scathingly for his standards, “Nothing you would wish to concern yourself with.”

Balthazar snorted and forced his fellow angel to lean back and get somewhat comfortable before he pulled the lapel of Castiel’s trenchcoat back and revealed a rapidly spreading bloodstain on his shirt.

“Ruining another one of your shirts isn’t much of a loss, Cassy, but you might want to take a little more care of your vessel. You won’t find a new one of those at Walmart!” the British angel remarked sarcastically as he began to dress the wound up for the third time that day. Castiel’s complete disregard for the physical pain he must be in was getting really frustrating.

“You came to my house, so whatever dispute brought you here concerns me now, too,” Bobby told the angels seriously, “So, spill your guts, feathers!”

Dean half expected Castiel to point out that he was already – literally – spilling his guts here, but luckily that didn’t happen. The older Winchester had to admit that he had felt a strong pang of guilt the very moment it had been revealed that the angel was seriously hurt, even though it was by no means clear that he could have done anything to help him, to begin with. The way Castiel had thrown Dean’s own inconsiderate words back at him had really hurt in any case.

“No, no, no, pal, this time _my_ question came first!” Balthazar pointed out before anyone could have said anything else. There still was a baby angel in the room and the blonde angel very much insisted to hearing more about that!

“We think it’s Gabriel,” Sam answered quickly, readjusting the infant so he was still in close contact with his shoulder, but was easier to be seen for the other two angels, “He reacts to the name, anyway.”

Castiel looked at the younger Winchester as if he had only just realized that he was even there and then turned his attention to the infant for a few moments before he stared at Dean in a way that Sam couldn’t quite explain to himself. He would have to ask when he got the chance, but it seemed doubtful that that would be anytime soon.

“He’s far too little to be Gabriel,” Balthazar stated with a frown, “And while we are at it, shouldn’t you be playing Twister with Lucifer and Michael, or whatever it is they do down there?”

Bobby forewent the discussion about what question had to be answered first, this time. It looked like they had a lot of things to talk about and it wasn’t like he wouldn’t remember to bring his question up again later on.

Sam froze for a moment before he felt the infant squirm. He managed to hush the baby angel by rocking him gently and rubbing his back before the silent noises of complaint could turn into full-blown wailing. This also gave him the chance to pay no attention to the question he had just been asked.

“Don’t know, Gabe’s always been small, the difference isn’t that big, really,” Dean quipped with a shrug. He opted to completely ignore the second part of the question, however. It wasn’t like he could have said much to it, anyway.

“Balthazar has been speaking about his true form, Dean,” Castiel explained seriously, “It should be much bigger than mine or his, but it seems to have shrunk considerably since I have last seen him.”

The older Winchester remembered the angel comparing the size of his true form to the Chrysler building, so hearing that Gabriel’s was supposed to be even bigger was impressive. Especially considering how he had always seemed to be a shorty among the angels.

“So, you two can see his real self behind the baby and he is still a baby that way, too?” Bobby summed up what he thought Castiel had just told them, “I’ll be damned.”

It wasn’t all too surprising to hear this, since they had already assumed as much. If the archangel had been his adult self in a baby’s body, he would have acted very differently, for sure. Even if he had for some reason wanted to make them believe that he was just a baby, he would have pushed the limits much more than he had, at the very least. The infant they had on their hands was actually quite well behaved and wasn’t exactly using his powers as if he really understood them.

“Yes, as perplexing as it is,” Castiel answered with a slight nod.

Sam really wanted to ask what exactly the angel thought was that perplexing, but under the circumstances he supposed that it would be better to get back to the topic of how Castiel had gotten injured and then let him have some rest. The younger Winchester could tell that the infant was getting antsy, as well. They really should try to wrap this up soon, get settled and return to the questioning later.

“Alright,” Dean stated, apparently thinking along the same lines as his brother, “Now, what about Raphael?”

They needed to know what the issue was so they could do something about it, after all. If the teenage mutant ninja angel wanted to have the angel’s head on a silver platter, they would need a damn good plan to keep him from getting it that was for sure.

“My presence here is hidden from him,” Castiel replied curtly, “And I will not inconvenience you any longer than necessary.”

The older Winchester wanted nothing more than to yell at his friend and tell him that he really should have known Dean better than to blow one foolish statement out of proportion as much as he was doing, but he wasn’t quite prepared to explain the entire situation to Sam and Bobby, so he kept quiet. The tension between the human and the angel was tangible, anyway.

The baby archangel promptly started to sob, clinging to the younger Winchester’s neck desperately.

“Can you two please give him any sign that you’re getting along again?” Sam suggested after a calming back-rub, some gentle rocking, nor soothing noises would do anything to make the infant stop crying. He wasn’t quite sure if Dean and Castiel paying lip service would do any good, but it was worth a shot.

“Okay, fine,” the younger Winchester sighed after a few more seconds of his brother and the angel just staring at each other, “I’ll just go get him set up in the guest room.”

Maybe putting some distance between the infant and the thing that was upsetting him would help, too. Sam had to say that he personally would have preferred Dean and Cas giving any sort of sign that they would remedy their differences sometime soon, however. Knowing his brother, he wouldn’t take the first step toward his friend and knowing the angel, he simply wouldn’t know what to do or say, though. The bottom line was that this might drag on much longer than it had to.

The younger Winchester grabbed the bag with the baby angel’s things before he headed upstairs. He’d probably have to bribe him with some more pudding or applesauce before the infant would calm down completely. It wasn’t like anything Gabriel ate had an effect on him, anyway. At least, this far there were no signs that the baby angel even needed to digest his food. Sam was nearly insanely glad about that, too.

“He’s Gabriel, alright,” Balthazar snarked, “Let’s hope he doesn’t figure out how to run away anytime soon.”


	9. Chapter 9

**8**

 

“I don’t care whatever the hell you two got your panties in a bunch about,” Bobby stated definitely after the younger Winchester had taken the baby archangel upstairs and neither Dean nor Castiel had given any signs of wanting to stop glaring at each other, “But we’ve got troubles on our hands and work to do, so you better get your heads out of your asses and do whatever you need to get this out of the way.”

Hell, in addition to the little problem that was Gabriel – pun absolutely intended – they apparently also had Raphael to worry about. If the archangel was trying to get rid of Castiel, chances were he wouldn’t be on their side, either. Oh, and Crowley still had that contract on Bobby’s soul, not that anybody seemed to give a damn about that. Well, the older hunter surely did.

“I think he is suggesting that you two kiss and make up,” Balthazar pointed out not really helpfully as he casually leaned against the couch Castiel was still sitting on.

“Whatever works,” Bobby grumbled under his breath, luckily too silently for Dean to hear. He decided that the older Winchester was much more likely to actually have a serious and useful talk with his angelic friend if there were less people watching them however, so he left the room after shooting the blonde angel a meaningful look that he chose to ignore completely. Missing manners and ignorance as far as more or less subtle hints were concerned seemed to be a very common disease among angels.

“Weren’t you leaving?” the older Winchester finally asked Balthazar sarcastically, “Like an hour ago?”

It was quite obvious that the blonde angel thought he had a witty and possibly scathing reply to that, but surprisingly enough one look from Castiel stopped him. Balthazar rolled his eyes and shook his head slightly. He straightened his posture and turned to leave, though.

“Well, so long,” the angel stated, “There are a few things I insist on trying before Raphael kills us all, anyway.”

Damned if that statement didn’t startle Dean so much that he immediately forgot what he had actually wanted to say. It was too bad too, because he had meant to just get it over with and apologize to his angelic friend and then knock him over the head for ever misunderstanding what he had said as much as he had. Hey, it wasn’t like all this was completely and only Dean’s fault!

“Okay, what the hell is up with that douchebag brother of yours?” the older Winchester asked with a groan instead before he realized that he might need to clarify what or whom he meant, “I’m talking about Raphael.”

Castiel continued to sit on the couch exactly as stiffly and awkwardly as before, but the way he avoided Dean’s gaze gave away that he was feeling even more uncomfortable because of the topic.

“Nothing you would –,” he started to reply before the older Winchester cut him off mid-sentence.

“Raphael is going to _kill us all_ , I want to concern myself with _that_!” the human stated very definitely, shooting Castiel a look that just dared him to object him.

Besides, the teenage mutant ninja angel had tried to kill their nerd angel and the older Winchester wanted to see blood for that alone! He should have known that Cas simply being the new sheriff in town was too good to be true from the start, really.

“In fact, Raphael does not wish to kill you all. He wants to restart the Apocalypse,” Castiel deadpanned.

If anyone but the angel had said something like this in that exact tone of voice, Dean would have punched them hard without a second thought.

“Your family is so fucked up, Cas,” the older Winchester snorted, but sat down next to his friend and reached for the angel’s trenchcoat to push it out of the way and take a look at the wound Raphael had inflicted himself. You couldn’t trust angels to know anything about tending to wounds on human bodies, after all.

“The damage done to my vessel will not kill me, Dean,” Castiel pointed out in his usual overly serious tone after he had watched the human make a fuss about the injury in silence for a few moments.

“It’s still a wound,” Dean insisted, but was reasonably content with the way the two angels had stopped the bleeding. As long as Castiel didn’t do any somersaults or moved too much in general he should be okay.

“Look, Cas, I meant what I said,” the older Winchester stated seriously after a short moment of silence, “None of those dicks have ever done anything for us.”

Sometimes, Dean really wished that his mind would be working faster than his brain more often, but he couldn’t take the words back now, anyway. The human took it as a promising sign that the angel hadn’t just vanished on him, though. It probably just showed how weakened he was, however.

“But how the hell could you even think that that included you, too?” the older Winchester continued to speak quickly before Castiel could decide to just walk out on him or before he could feel even more awkward about having a heart-to-heart with his angelic friend, “You’re not one of _them_. You’re one of _us_!”

The angel gave Dean a perfectly puzzled look before his eyebrows drew closer together in silent contemplation. He supposed he might have known this, but humans just were hard to figure out for him and it wasn’t like Dean Winchester was a perfect textbook case in most things.

“I appreciate it,” Castiel finally replied with a small smile and a grateful nod.

The older Winchester drew in a relieved breath and patted the angel’s shoulder. He knew that this little conversation had been necessary, but he was all too glad that it was over and done with, all the same.

“Alright, good,” Dean concluded and brought some more space between himself and the angel, “Now let’s talk about Raphael.”

 

* * *

 

 

“Guess we can call the second one Balthazar now,” Sam chuckled quietly as he put one of Gabriel’s plush angels into the crib and handed the other one over to the infant sitting on a blanket he had spread on the floor, “What do you think?”

The younger Winchester tried to read what the baby thought of his fellow angel from the expression on his face when he said the name, but there wasn’t really one that was any different to how he usually looked. His big golden-brown eyes were fixed on Sam for a few moments and he made definitely happy sounds when he finally got his tiny hands on the toy, but other than that there was nothing that might have given away, if he thought that Balthazar was good news or bad news. Hell, there was nothing to tell if he even recognized the name.

The younger Winchester was rather willing to assume that the new angel was okay judged by the trust Castiel seemed to put into him, however. He had been more interested into seeing how much knowledge about his old life might still be there. This far he had to assume that there wasn’t much of anything Gabriel remembered.

Of course, there were a lot of other things Sam should probably deal with downstairs, but he couldn’t help feeling like the tiny archangel needed his attention most, that very moment. Besides, he found that he preferred staying with the baby over going to face anyone or anything else, anyway.

The younger Winchester faintly acknowledged that this was by no means his usual way of dealing with things, but he couldn’t really care about it all the same.

“I don’t think that’s the way to treat an angel’s wings, Gabe,” Sam told the baby who was once more gnawing on his plush toy’s wings like he was actually trying to eat them. The human shook his head slightly amused and reached for the infant to pet his hair for a moment. The moment turned into more of a minute as Gabriel rubbed his head against Sam’s hand like a cat searching for attention. The comparison was probably more spot on than the younger Winchester would ever dare to say out loud in front of any parents of a young child.

Sam gave in and let the baby angel and his little plushy friend sit in his lap after a few more seconds passed and Gabriel showed no signs of wanting to break the contact between them. A picture of the archangel’s adult self in a similar position appeared before the younger Winchester’s mind’s eye and while he found it to be quite disturbing, he also had to chuckle.

Gabriel seemed to appreciate his caretaker’s upbeat mood and proceeded to giggle happily while pulling on the wings of his toy like he wanted to see if they were attached well enough.

“Y’know, I guess you might even have a set of those yourself,” Sam mused, rubbing circles on the infant’s back absentmindedly. There was far too much they didn’t know about the baby angel for the younger Winchester’s taste. How the hell was he supposed to know when he was doing something wrong if he didn’t know what the normal standards for the situation were? Heck, he wouldn’t have known what the standards for a normal baby were, either. Sam vowed to do some research on ordinary six months olds as soon as he got the chance, at least.

“Oh, he does,” Balthazar said, casually leaning against the doorframe, “They are comparatively little and, dare I say, cute?”

The younger Winchester nearly jumped and glared at the angel for a second. Those guys really didn’t know how to use a door or knock! The time Sam had spent in hell had done nothing to make him feel more at ease with people just popping in wherever and whenever they pleased, either.

He only realized that he had instinctively cradled the infant archangel against his chest protectively when one tiny and – once more – thoroughly wet hand came up to pat his cheek. Sam gave Gabriel a rather forced smile as he put the infant back down and turned his full attention to the adult angel in the room.

“What do you want?” the younger Winchester asked rather wearily, even as he tried to keep his voice calm and completely free of anything Gabriel would not like to hear.

“A good bottle of Chardonnay and a beautiful woman on each arm,” Balthazar replied sarcastically before he added the real explanation in a slightly less sarcastic tone, “But I thought I’d take a closer look at the first baby angel I have ever seen first.”

There was no doubt whatsoever that the old Gabriel would have loved the other angel’s attitude. Sam just found it rather tiresome, that very moment. He still realized that he had just gotten a piece of information that might be rather good to know, however.

“I assume you are saying that angels usually skip the baby stage?” the younger Winchester asked to make sure that his suspicion was correct. If he was right, their entire situation might have just become a little stranger still. Who would have thought that was even possible?

“Angels are God’s soldiers,” Sam mused when the other man gave him a short nod to confirm his assumption, “An army of babies wouldn’t be very effective, I suppose.”

“I am starting to think that maybe your brain is proportionally sized,” Balthazar replied with a casual shrug. He stepped forward under the critical gaze of both the angelic infant and his human caretaker.

“May I?” the blonde angels asked, gesturing toward the baby.

To be completely honest, Sam didn’t want to hand Gabriel over, but he supposed he didn’t really have a reason to deny the angel’s wish. It wasn’t like he had any reason to think that Balthazar might want to hurt or kidnap the baby.

“No, sorry,” the younger Winchester replied and was at least as surprised about his own response as the other man was. He had thought he had just decided that he had no reason not to let Balthazar hold the infant for a little while, but apparently the part of him that really didn’t want to let go had spoken up before his rational mind could have stopped it.

Sam stood up and let the angel take a closer look at his babyfied brother at least, though.

Gabriel crossed his eyes when Balthazar touched the tip of his nose with a finger and let his pacifier drop from his mouth to suck on the angel’s finger instead with much more speed than Sam would have thought he should be capable of. The younger Winchester wasn’t quite sure if the information about the baby archangel being able to change the object he was sucking on within the blink of an eye would ever become useful, but he filed it away for future reference, anyway.

“You always were a little crude for my taste, brother,” Balthazar commented slightly disgusted and pulled his finger away, trying to find something he could wipe it on and settling for the blanket on the floor, finally.

Gabriel only squealed happily and bounced in Sam’s arms, however. The younger Winchester decided that this was probably another personality trait the infant had taken over from his old self. Granted, the prank hadn’t been very elaborate, but it sure had been effective enough.

“So, is there any way we can get him back to his adult self?” Sam asked after a short moment of silence in which he put the baby’s pacifier back into his mouth.

“I am pretty sure you will figure something out,” Balthazar shrugged, fixing his eyes on Sam’s for a few long moments, “I hear that the Winchesters are the people to go to for impossible tasks.”

Sam huffed but didn’t get the chance to say anything to it before the angel vanished into thin air.

“I swear Gabe, if you ever do that, I’ll ground you!”


	10. Chapter 10

**9**

 

Apparently, selling the idea of free will to angels was a lot like trying to sell vibrators to nuns. Sure, some might jump at the opportunity and some might be mildly curious at least, but most would just be baffled by the very concept or scandalized by the idea.

At least, Dean supposed that was how nuns worked. Nuns who weren’t starring in porn, anyway.

The point was that Castiel might have found some angels who were very willing to follow his lead and take their lives into their own hands, but most would prefer to keep things going as they had been. And Raphael was very much encouraging that way of thinking with his entire ‘the Apocalypse didn’t work out as planned, let’s try it again!’ policy.

Lucky for them, it didn’t look like Raphael knew how exactly he could open the cage, for the moment being. That only gave them some time, however. The angels would eventually come up with a way for sure, they had before, after all.

Repeating all the facts for Sam and Bobby’s benefits did nothing to make Dean’s mood better and the fact that Gabriel was snoring and drooling against the crook of the younger Winchester’s neck didn’t help, either.

Actually, what was annoying the older Winchester was that it really started to look like his brother and the damn archangel were attached to each other permanently. He hadn’t really seen Sam without Gabriel ever since they had picked him up in Walkerville and it was beginning to bother Dean a little. Especially since they had no real clue what the archangel could do and was possibly already doing without any of them noticing.

“I suppose we cannot expect any more help from your father,” Bobby stated matter-of-factly.

If God didn’t lift a finger to stop the Apocalypse while it was going on, it was highly doubtful that he would do anything against one of his children wanting to bring it back. Then again, if Bobby felt like being overly optimistic he would say that He might have given them some aid in the form of the two formerly dead people He had brought back. Though how exactly Gabriel was meant to be useful in the state he was in was up for questioning.

“That’s assuming that it even was God who brought us back,” Sam added in a hushed tone as to not disturb the sleeping infant.

Sure, the younger Winchester assumed that it was so himself, but this was the perfect chance to get the input of someone who had been brought back to life by God before.

“There might be other entities that could have pulled you from the cage,” Castiel replied seriously, “But I do not believe that anybody else could have resurrected Gabriel.”

And that pretty much settled the matter.

“And He simply could not remember how small exactly Gabriel was before and overdid it a little?” Dean asked sarcastically, even though he really should have known better than to use sarcasm with his angelic friend.

“I do believe this is his punishment,” Castiel answered without acknowledging the tone the older Winchester had used at all.

As a matter of fact, there was no reason whatsoever for Gabriel to be in the shape he was unless their father had wanted him to be. It couldn’t have been a mistake or and accident and there was no room for doubt about that in the angel’s mind.

Sam stroked the baby’s back absentmindedly as he listened to the explanation Castiel had come up with. He didn’t like the thought that Gabriel was being punished and might be suffering in some way. Granted, the infant didn’t seem to be in any sort of distress most of the time. The only exceptions being things that might upset any other baby, as well.

“Why punish him like this?” the younger Winchester asked with a frown, “There had to be other and probably more practical options.”

Castiel simply shrugged in an imitation of a gesture he had seen other people do quite often. It looked quite strange – by far too tense and drawn out just a little too long – when the angel did it, however.

“Fact is,” Dean stated thoughtfully after a moment of consideration, “The littlest douchebag angel should be able to tip the scale in our favor once he’s his slightly less little self again.”

He wouldn’t have lost a word about it, but Sam liked that thought even less. He knew what sort of a reaction he would get from his brother – and maybe even the others – if he had said that he really didn’t want them talking about Gabriel playing a part in any violent angelic conflicts as long as he was an infant though, so he kept silent. To tell the truth, Sam was a little concerned by the fact that protecting the baby seemed to come to him so naturally, as well.

“Looks like we’ve got a whole lot of research to do,” Bobby more or less agreed with what the older Winchester had just said, “And I ain’t doing it by myself. You’re coming with me.”

Dean didn’t miss a beat to complain half-heartedly about how unfair it was that he had to go, but he knew that Cas – no matter how little he showed it – needed the rest and Sam couldn’t really carry heavy books around as long as he had that angelic growth attached to his shoulder. Of course, the older Winchester might have argued about the possibility to put the freaking baby down for a fucking minute with his younger brother, but he opted to go for the more peaceful route and help with finding a way to force Gabriel to grow up.

He really hoped that there wouldn’t be any more cuddling once that happened!

Well, if there was that would at least give them all a dead certain sign that Sam was – in fact – acting strange because of the archangel.

“Hey Cas,” Sam began a little awkwardly once the other two men had left the room, “I’m… I’m sorry. Y’know, last time we saw each other… I’m really glad God brought you back.”

This had to be one of the hardest apologies the younger Winchester had had to make in his entire life. How did you say sorry to someone for killing them, after all? Especially if it was actually the devil using your body at the time. Sam still felt that he should apologize, though. If only – or mostly – for not preventing Lucifer from doing it.

It came as a big surprise when Castiel simply stood up from the couch he had been resting on and gave Sam a short but tight hug.

“I understand this is the appropriate response to the resurrection of a friend,” the angel stated, standing in front of the human a little awkwardly now that the moment was over.

“Uh, yeah. Thanks Cas,” Sam replied with a short dimpled smile. It was a nice – if surprising – gesture, after all.

The angel took the opportunity to take a closer look at the baby archangel while he was this close to him, already. He might not show it as clearly as Balthazar had, but the entire situation was fascinating and highly baffling.

“It seems my brother is leaking,” Castiel suddenly stated in a completely serious tone which made it impossible for the younger Winchester to keep a straight face.

“Yeah, he’s quite the drooler,” Sam managed between chuckles before a more serious thought came to his mind again, “What I don’t get is why he even sleeps, though. Angels don’t need sleep, right? He obviously has some of his powers and he doesn’t need to breathe…”

The younger Winchester trailed off at that point, but of course mentioning that he knew for a fact that Gabriel did not have to breathe if he didn’t get the chance didn’t faze Castiel at all.

“I would think that he simply likes it,” the angel suggested, looking at the infant quizzically.

Which would explain why the baby ate, too. Not having to do something and being unable to do it were two different things, after all. And Sam sure was relieved to hear that everything was within the limits of what would be considered normal for an angel.

Dean and Bobby came back carrying a lot of books before the younger Winchester could have made any more questions. The most pressing matters had been addressed already, anyway.

 

* * *

 

 

“So, you might start to crawl, babble and teethe,” Sam told Gabriel silently as he tried to feed him some more pudding while still reading through the website he had just found, “Normal babies your age would, anyway.”

Which meant that the archangel might start to do any of these things and also start to smite people, use his powers however the hell he wanted and – heaven forbids – fly. The thing was that none of them really knew what to expect from the angelic part of Gabriel being an angel baby. Sam figured he might at least gather some information about the baby part, though.

“And the suggested diet says nothing about applesauce and pudding only,” the younger Winchester added in a slightly reprimanding tone that made the infant look at him questioningly for a moment before he simply went on happily devouring his pudding.

“Dude, this is not the sort of research you should be doing here,” Dean pointed out, taking a look over his brother’s shoulder as he went into the kitchen to get himself and Bobby something to drink, “You’re really getting way too much into the mommy business!”

Sam secretly completely agreed with his brother about the latter, but he couldn’t help wanting to be prepared for his new role as a caretaker of a young child. Especially since he didn’t have any clue when he would get rid of it again.

“Glad you’re being so mature about it, Dean,” he replied out loud instead, “And if anything, it’s daddy business.”

The younger Winchester knew perfectly well that he wasn’t doing himself a favor with his last comment, of course. It just had felt like something he really wanted to point out, though. There hadn’t really been a reason not to do it, either.

“How could I ever think otherwise?” the older Winchester shot back sarcastically, “Bitch.”

No matter how that might have sounded to someone else they both knew that there was no heat behind their little argument. In fact, it was just their form of brotherly banter that let them both know that things were at least sort of okay, even though they might still have many things to deal with.

“Did you find anything useful at all before you decided to indulge your weird fascination with toddlers?” Dean asked once he had gotten two bottles of beer from the fridge and was about to go back to the study.

“There’s a lot of stuff about the fountain of youth and related things, but that’s counterproductive I’d say,” Sam shrugged, “And of course there are curses to make someone age rapidly.”

But that obviously wasn’t what they were looking for, either. Not to mention that using a curse or dark arts spell even for a good purpose was highly risky, in any case.

“Basically the same crap we’ve been wading through then,” Dean groaned and turned to leave the kitchen for good before he thought of something else, “I’m going on a supply run later. Anything in particular I should get?”

The younger Winchester considered that question for a few moments. There were a couple of things he figured might be useful to get for Gabriel, but he didn’t think he could send his brother into a baby store and expect a satisfying outcome.

“More pudding,” Sam finally answered, “Maybe some vanilla flavor for a change. Guess trying to get him actually healthy baby meals would be like throwing money out of the window, anyway.”

Dean snorted amusedly and shook his head at his brother. Yeah right, like Gabriel would ever be convinced that any of Sam’s rabbit food might be better than all the deliciously artificial flavors and sweeteners of the meals he was currently having. After all, he hadn’t been able to convince Dean of the same and – no matter what Sam might say – Dean was able to comprehend logical arguments and go for the more beneficial option instead of the simply pleasurable one.

“Right, you’re totally not in mommy mode,” the older Winchester chuckled and left before his brother could say anything.

The younger Winchester huffed and threw a glare – that totally wasn’t a bitchface – after his brother’s receding form. He had the bad feeling that this wasn’t the last time he had ever heard that particular joke or a variation of it, though.

“Brothers. Can’t live with them, absolutely can’t live without them,” Sam sighed and shook his head slightly to get rid of the unwanted thoughts he had just brought upon himself. After all, thinking about the time Dean spent in hell was about as bad as thinking about…

Gabriel suddenly exhaled soundly and rubbed his face against the younger Winchester’s shirt. It should never be said that the infant archangel wasn’t willing to share. He shared his annoyance with everyone, he shared his drool with Sam mostly and he was all too willing to share the leftover pudding on his face with Sam’s shirt.

The younger Winchester grabbed one of the napkins on the table to wipe the infant’s face with and put the pacifier back into the archangel’s mouth when he was done. Yes, he knew pretty well what Gabriel wanted and when he would want it. He was really good at picking up the signs the infant was giving him, by this point.

“We’re a good team, Gabe,” Sam decided, giving the content and happy baby a smile, “Know what? Try not to forget that once you’re an adult again.”


	11. Chapter 11

**10**

 

It was quite fascinating how distracted Castiel was by the presence of the baby archangel.

It hadn’t been that obvious at first, but when Sam had spread a blanket on the floor and had given Gabriel his toys to play with so he could do some more research the dark-haired angel had started to look through his books more slowly. He had spent at least five minutes on one page before he even made an effort to read it as he watched the infant chew on his toy angel. Sam might have imagined things, but he thought he had seen Castiel wince ever so slightly in sympathy when his brother had first attacked the toy’s wings. Yes, the younger Winchester was always watching Gabriel and Castiel out of the corner of his eye, too.

Needless to say, they didn’t get all too much research done like this.

They were quite lucky that Dean had left to get some supplies a while ago. Bobby probably wouldn’t have given them quite as much of a hard time, but the older hunter was currently going through the part of his book collection that he had stored in the panic room, anyway.

The younger Winchester chuckled to himself as silently as possible as he turned the page after a ridiculously long while again. He couldn’t help wondering what exactly the angel was so fascinated with. Or rather, if he was fascinated by the technical aspect of ‘How did Gabriel become an infant and what details are different now’ or the purely emotional aspect of ‘Oh dear, he’s so damn cute!’.

Sam chuckled a little louder when that thought crossed his mind. It was quite funny to imagine that the very stoic angel with his thoughtful expression was actually squeeing and cooing in his mind.

Gabriel looked up to his caretaker immediately and squealed happily, knocking Gabstiel, the one of the two plush angels that had a tag attached under the white shirt he had on, the one detail the archangel had gotten wrong, against the blanket as he threw his little arms up and down a few times.

Surprisingly, Sam managed to tear his eyes away and concentrate on the book he was holding first, in the end. Well, if Gabriel really was the very first baby angel in existence – that Balthazar and probably Castiel knew of anyway – it was more than understandable that Castiel was having a hard time looking away.

The younger Winchester was rather sure that the book he was going through was pretty much useless for the things they needed, namely a way to get Gabriel back to his adult form or a way to defeat Raphael, but since there was no index he had to leaf through it to make sure, anyway. The closest to anything useful he could find was a spell to make plants grow faster and he was pretty sure that archangels couldn’t be considered plants.

Sam sighed and grabbed the next book, idly wondering if Bobby even had any books that weren’t in danger of falling apart any second. Well, you couldn’t expect rare books about ancient magic and basically forgotten lore to get new editions every couple years, of course.

The younger Winchester continued to skim through pages, looking for keywords that might be useful. He had expected that it might be rather hard to find something about making someone age faster, because people usually were looking for the exact opposite of that, but he had thought that it would be easier to find something that could be used in warfare. People were always searching for ways to make their own side the winning one, after all. Of course, they would need something suitable for a conflict between damn powerful beings that had a lot of knowledge and might see any sort of attack coming from a hundred miles away.

There had to be something they could do, however. Failure was not an option once more. Raphael couldn’t be allowed to open the cage again under any circumstances. They couldn’t let him!

“Aww, why not? We’ve had so much fun, don’t you remember?” Lucifer’s voice whispered to the younger Winchester softly which chilled him to the very bone and made him feel utterly helpless, draining all hope before the fallen angel had even stopped speaking.

Sam’s eyes widened, even though he wasn’t seeing the room he was actually in, that very moment. He couldn’t hear the small confused noises Gabriel was starting to make over his own much too fast heartbeat, either.

“No worries, Sammy. We’ll be back together in no time,” the devil promised reassuringly, even as he closed his hands around the younger Winchester’s throat and made it impossible for him to breathe right. That moment Sam felt like he was already back in the cage or any other place where Lucifer wanted him to be.

On the outside the younger Winchester was still sitting on the floor, next to the blanket with the - now distressed - baby on it, a book in his hands, looking at the pages with a blank expression on his face. On the inside he felt like he was suffocating while Lucifer smiled at him and whispered things he really didn’t want to hear into his ear, however.

“Sam?” Castiel tried to get the younger Winchester’s attention and when that didn’t work he tried again, more urgently, “Sam!”

The angel had only just crossed the room to use more drastic measures to make the human come to his senses again when he snapped out of it by himself.

Sam drew in a couple of great shuddering breaths and threw the book he had been holding away from himself as if it had had anything to do with what had just happened with one hand before he even realized that he had a crying baby clinging to his other arm.

The younger Winchester picked Gabriel up automatically and did everything he could to calm him down. It was only when the baby was merely whimpering silently that Sam even acknowledged Castiel standing next to him and giving him a very questioning stare.

“Must have spaced out for a moment,” the human mumbled, hating how insecure and hoarse his voice sounded even to himself.

The angel clearly did not buy it, but he wasn’t saying anything for which Sam was rather grateful. He was also rather relieved that Dean had not been there to witness whatever had just happened. He’d have a very hard time making his brother believe that he was fine, but he hoped that he didn’t even need to try to convince the angel all too much. He thought that he had a pretty realistic chance that Castiel would not demand any explanations, at least.

“It’s okay now,” Sam stated with more conviction than he felt deep down as he rocked the baby archangel gently. He was trying to make Gabriel believe what he had just said as much as Castiel, actually.

He really was okay again, though. Apparently, he just couldn’t think of Raphael or his plans too much and he would start with stopping himself from lingering on the topic any longer that very moment.

The dark-haired angel didn’t stop looking at the younger Winchester as if he was trying to see right through him, but other than that he remained quiet and didn’t give any signs of belief of disbelief. That was good enough for Sam, anyway.

“Uh, Cas, I’m going to get him cleaned up, alright?” the tall human asked after he had determined that Gabriel really needed to get his face washed and he really needed to leave the room for a moment. Actually, Sam just really needed to leave the room for a little while. Period.

“I do not believe we are going to find any solutions in those books, anyway,” Castiel replied and didn’t that just sound a little too hopeless for the younger Winchester’s taste?

Maybe he should have come up with something reassuring to say, but he really couldn’t think of anything and sometimes staying silent was better than to use some stupid phrases that everyone knew were just half-truths or outright lies. Sam still had the sinking feeling that he was an awful friend as he left Castiel alone in the living room.

The younger Winchester was still mulling things over when Gabriel suddenly threw his little arms around his neck. Damned if Sam didn’t feel very close to tears that very moment. A freaking infant was constantly trying to comfort him and make him keep his act together and if that didn’t feel all sorts of wrong then he didn’t know what would. At the same time he knew he had to be grateful that there was something - or rather someone - who kept him sane, however.

“Tell you the truth, Gabe,” Sam whispered in a voice thick with emotion, “I never pegged you as the caring type.”

Yes, maybe Gabriel just wanted his attention and the fact that that gave him something to focus on instead of anything hell-related was just a side-effect. Did it really matter, though? The result was one that was rather good for the younger Winchester.

Besides, Sam liked to believe that the infant wouldn’t go to the lengths he was obviously going to, if he didn’t have some positive emotions towards him. After all, he had somehow…

The human stopped in his tracks and stared at the baby archangel for a few moments before he turned around and quickly went back to the living room where Castiel was discarding more books and texts as useless in their current situation.

“Cas, when I… blanked out there, Gabriel was on the other side of the blanket,” Sam started in a rather urgent tone, “Did you see how he got over to me?”

It was nearly comical how both angels – the adult as well as the baby – were looking at the younger Winchester with a perfectly puzzled expression.

When Castiel finally answered that he had not actually seen what had happened the younger Winchester set Gabriel back on the spot where he had originally been and stood a couple feet away. He probably shouldn’t have been as excited as he was about the prospect of the infant starting to crawl, but it seemed like a pretty big thing and a very welcome distraction from the gloomy mood that had been prevalent in the room earlier.

The baby didn’t seem particularly pleased with the loss of contact and immediately reached out for Sam again. The human only crouched down and extended his arm toward the infant without actually touching him, however.

It wasn’t that easy to ignore the first few noises of complaint coming from the baby, but the younger Winchester knew that he had to motivate Gabriel to try and come get what he wanted instead of handing it to him. Thinking about it, he probably owed it to the archangel to give him some better motivation after everything.

Sam quickly got a fresh container of pudding from the stash they had for the infant and put it onto the blanket under the interested stares of – once again – both angels. The younger Winchester wasn’t sure which one of them was more perplexed by his behavior, but he knew for sure that Gabriel was highly interested in the pudding.

“Come on, Gabe, I know you can get it yourself,” Sam stated in an encouraging tone as he watched the infant’s eyes go back and forth between him and the container.

The younger Winchester was just about to admit that he had been wrong and just pick Gabriel back up and hand him the food when the baby pressed his tiny hands and feet into the blanket more and began to scoot over on his bottom.

Sam couldn’t help the feeling of accomplishment after seeing his suspicions confirmed and especially after seeing that he had successfully encouraged the little angel to get mobile.

Castiel cocked his head slightly. Judged by the younger Winchester’s reaction the fact that Gabriel was moving around on his butt was a very good thing. Humans really were perplexing at times.

“Isn’t that great?” Sam asked, surprising himself by how cheerful he actually felt. Hey, he had only been in charge of the baby archangel for four days and he was already starting to crawl. Clearly, Sam was doing something right.

“It seems like a rather ineffective mode of transportation,” Castiel remarked, “However, my brother’s current physique makes it look rather endearing.”

The younger Winchester simply blinked a couple of times and then put a hand on the angel’s shoulder amiably. This was probably as much of an emotional response as could be expected from Castiel. However, it was just the way the angel was and even though it had taken him a while to really understand it, the angel was quite capable of feelings things he just didn’t express it the way that would usually be expected.

Sam had been a little too lost in this small victory to keep Gabriel from just putting his little hand into the pudding container and putting it into his mouth. It didn’t look like they would have to worry that the infant might be overeating after he had already had some pudding not too long ago, though. He was smearing most of it all over his face and the cartoon muffin on his shirt, anyway.

“Okay, I’ll really go get him cleaned up now,” the younger Winchester announced after another little while of letting the baby make a mess to his heart’s content. It wasn’t making much of a difference anymore, really.

Gabriel squealed happily when he was in his caretaker’s arms again and cuddled up to Sam’s shoulder contently, letting the human carry him upstairs to Bobby’s bathroom.

“I’m very proud of you,” Sam whispered when they were well out of earshot of the living room.


	12. Chapter 12

**11**

 

Dean had known that he would take longer for the few simple things he was meant to buy than it should have, because he never intended to only buy those few things to begin with. He had seriously underestimated the time he would need for his additional purchases, however.

When the older Winchester finally set foot into Bobby’s house again he was greeted by the sight of the older hunter and the angel debating over a book. From the few things Dean picked up of their conversation it didn’t look like they were actually getting anywhere, though. They seemed to be debating over the merits of a little less literal translation of some text while Dean put the groceries away mostly.

“Where’s Sam?” the older Winchester asked as soon as he was done and managed to get their attention for a moment.

The main reason why his shopping had taken longer than it should have was that he had wanted to buy something for his giant of a little brother, after all. A part of Dean was giggling gleefully with the prospect of getting to hand his present to Sam, so he really couldn’t wait to go through with his plan.

“He took Gabriel to get cleaned up,” Castiel informed the older Winchester before he focused his attention on the book in front of him again.

Dean nodded shortly and turned to go upstairs to the bathroom before he thought better of it and added another question instead. “So, did you find anything?”

“Of course, we solved all our problems and just thought it ain’t worth mentioning before you think to ask for it,” Bobby replied sarcastically, giving the older Winchester a pointed look as Castiel nodded absentmindedly.

Dean just blinked a couple of times in silence and then turned to go find his younger brother for good. He wasn’t really surprised by the tone Bobby had taken with him. Hell, when the older hunter got annoyed or frustrated or when he was having an ordinary day but decided that he didn’t want to be all nice and friendly he got like this, it was nothing new. He was a little surprised that Castiel apparently began to understand what sarcasm was, though. And he was pretty sure that he hadn’t been the one to teach him that. Oh, he had meant to do it more than once, but there had always been another monster or demon or the Apocalypse and he just hadn’t gotten the chance.

“Dude, I just-,” Dean began, but stopped abruptly once he had fully opened the bathroom door. His earlier train of thought was abandoned in favor of exclaiming, “Ah! My eyes! Can’t you lock the damn door?”

“If you had actually looked, you’d have seen that everything is hidden by bubbles, Dean,” Sam pointed out casually. He was kneeling on the floor next to the bathtub which was partly filled with warm water and held a highly content yet fascinated infant splashing about inside. When the younger Winchester had very carefully washed Gabriel’s hair, he had noticed how much the baby seemed to love the resulting bubbles, so he had added a few more to the water.

“I still didn’t need to see that!” the older Winchester insisted. He wondered, not for the first time, if the fact that Gabriel was a baby somehow made them all feel or act younger, too. He absolutely wasn’t saying that he was acting childishly, but he couldn’t help noticing that he was reacting strongly to things that wouldn’t really have bothered him under different circumstances. It probably was just the strangeness of the situation that wore them all down. Though, what wore Dean down the most was how easy it seemed to be for Sam to just roll with it. He’d go as far as to say that he barely knew his brother anymore in certain moments.

“One word about ‘uncle Dean’ now and I will punch you!” the older Winchester added in a threatening tone before his younger brother could say anything. He could see that the dreaded term had been on the tip of his brother’s tongue, however.

Sam huffed but said nothing and returned to making small waves with the hand that wasn’t supporting Gabriel’s back for the infant’s amusement.

“Good thing I got him something to wear,” Dean stated with a smirk as soon as he had overcome the initial shock of not actually seeing anything, but being bombarded with very unwanted mental pictures, especially of what the adult version of the archangel would look like in a similar situation. His mind clearly was very masochistic!

The older Winchester waited for a few moments until he had his younger brother’s attention and then pulled the baby sized t-shirt he had gotten printed while he had been shopping from behind his back. There had been nothing holding him back as soon as he had seen the copy shop.

“Ha ha, very funny, Dean,” Sam commented with a snort, shaking his head.

The older Winchester rolled up the shirt and aimed at the side of his brother’s head. He was a little disappointed when Sam managed to dodge the attack, but at the same time he was glad to see that his brother’s reflexes were still somewhat good.

“Please, we both know that you’re squealing with joy inside or some crap like that,” Dean remarked with a grin, “By the way, I also got you a car seat for your little friend.”

The ‘I’m awesome’ was heavily implied by the way the older Winchester had just made that announcement. The scathing reply Sam had been about to make because of the first part of what Dean had said immediately died in his throat when he heard the second part. Yes, his older brother was pretty awesome. When he wanted to be, anyway.

“Thanks Dean,” the younger Winchester replied sincerely.

“I’ll get lost before all of those bubbles do the same,” the older Winchester announced with a very self-satisfied smile and closed the bathroom door behind himself. His mission was accomplished and he’d better quit while he was ahead.

As soon as Dean was out of the door Sam reached for the shirt his brother had thrown at him earlier with his free hand and took a closer look at it.

The older Winchester had gotten the picture he had taken of a sleeping Sam and Gabriel printed on a shirt with a caption saying ‘daddy’s little angel’. Dean probably hadn’t meant it to be as adorable as Sam thought it was, not that the younger Winchester would ever tell his brother about that.

“You’ll probably take another few months until it fits you, though,” Sam told the infant as he put the shirt away and focused on Gabriel again. The thought that the archangel might still be a baby, albeit a slightly bigger baby, in a few months actually didn’t bother him, although he knew it should. Damn, they needed Gabriel to be an adult angel again. Castiel needed his brother to get his old strength back and help him.

Sam was interrupted in his musings when the baby suddenly managed to splash around enough that some of the water actually hit the younger Winchester in the face. They both looked at each other surprised before the archangel squealed happily and the human wiped a few droplets of water from his face with a chuckle.

“Okay, Gabe, I think the water’s getting too cold now,” Sam stated a little apologetically as he lifted the infant out of the bathtub and wrapped him up in a towel.

Once he had the baby back on the bed in Bobby’s guest room he thought about foregoing the diaper for a moment, but he wanted Gabriel to appear like a normal baby, so he decided to just put him into one again, anyway. It couldn’t hurt, after all.

“I don’t suppose you’d go to sleep and let me leave the room for a while so I can actually get things done,” the younger Winchester said after he was done putting the archangel into his pajamas and had put one of the freshly cleaned pacifiers into his mouth.

“Alright, I guess I have some more time,” Sam smiled amusedly when Gabriel extended his little arms toward him in a clear demand to be held and cuddled.

To tell the truth, he was pretty sure that Dean and the others were managing just fine without him while the archangel really needed him.

“What do you think about a bedtime story?” the younger Winchester asked in a soft tone and got up to get the picture book they had bought in that baby store when Gabriel rubbed his little head against the crook of his neck. Reading a story for the baby would give him something to say without feeling stupid, at least.

Sam took a while to get them both settled comfortably before he opened the book and flipped through the pages, stopping at a picture of a little angel.

 

* * *

 

 

About half an hour later Dean couldn’t stop himself from checking up on his brother once more any longer, because – really – bathing the baby shouldn’t take anywhere near this long. Besides, there were no noises coming from the two of them to give away if they were even still there, either.

Maybe he just wanted to tease his little brother some more. Maybe he had the urge to make sure that Gabriel wasn’t somehow messing with his brother any more than he already was. Maybe a part of him still couldn’t quite believe that he actually had Sammy back and he needed to reassure himself that he wasn’t just going insane and his brother was really there.

Whatever it was, Dean walked up the stairs and opened the door to the guest room after he saw that the bathroom door was open and the room was empty to check on his brother and the archangel.

The scene he found was rather similar to the one he had gotten printed on that t-shirt. Sam was lying on the bed on his back and Gabriel was snuggled up to his chest, his little head resting in the crook of the younger Winchester’s neck. The picture book had fallen out of Sam’s hands when he must have instinctively moved to hold Gabriel against him securely after they had both fallen asleep.

Dean had to admit that he liked to see his brother being as much at peace as he seemed to be that very moment, but the entire setup filled him with a sense of dread, too. They were working on turning Gabriel back into an adult. They needed every helping hand they could get. Yet he was starting to feel like Sam would not actually be too happy about losing the baby.

“What are the chances that your brother is somehow forcing Sam to take care of him against his will?” Dean asked Castiel a little while later. Even if he thought that there was something fishy about all the cuddling his brother was doing with the archangel, he still wasn’t enough of a bastard to disturb the two of them when they were sleeping peacefully, so he had returned downstairs quietly.

“I suppose it is possible that Gabriel possesses the powers to make sure that his physical and emotional needs are taken care of,” Castiel answered thoughtfully, “I could not detect any uses of my brother’s ‘mojo’ ever since you brought him here, however.”

The older Winchester nodded as he took the new information in. He didn’t want to raise doubts about Castiel’s expertise on the subject, but he also didn’t want to rule out the possibility that the archangel was just somehow able to hide his tracks too well for the angel to notice.

“Okay and what are the chances that Gabriel will get out of his diapers anytime soon?” Dean added another question after a moment of consideration.

Castiel cocked his head confusedly and apparently thought about taking the question by far too literal before his face lit up with realization. “Angels are created as adults. Gabriel being a baby is unnatural considering what he is, so it stands to reason that there has to be a possibility to restore the natural order of things.”

The older Winchester nodded satisfied. It sounded reasonable and was exactly what he had hoped to hear. Thinking about it like that, he should have been by far more suspicious of what his friend had just said, probably.

“Alright, let’s just try to find that possibility before Sam starts buying baby guidebooks,” he replied jokingly, though he was clearly forcing himself to talk in a casual tone.

He couldn’t help thinking that he should have tried to separate his little brother and the tiniest archangel from the very start, but just leaving Gabriel at the motel in Walkerville hadn’t really been an option and now he didn’t have a clear reason to tell Sam to get the hell away from the infant. Well, he didn’t have a reason other than his bad gut feeling, anyway. Yeah, Sam would react totally cool and reasonable to that argument for sure!

“How’s the healing coming along?” Dean asked when he noticed that Castiel was still walking a little stiffly. If he wasn’t completely wrong, the angel was doing better already, though.

“Raphael luckily did not manage to do any real damage,” Castiel replied and made the older Winchester’s insides freeze for a moment with it. He really wouldn’t have wanted to see what ‘real damage’ would have looked like. The wound that Raphael had inflicted had looked bad enough in Dean’s humble opinion.

“Balthazar intervened,” the angel added on an afterthought, “He was one of the first who stepped forward and declared their intention to follow my way instead of Raphael’s.”

The older Winchester couldn’t say that he had thought the blonde angel with the British accent was all too trustworthy, but he hadn’t had that much time to form an opinion. The information he had just been given helped with trusting the other angel around Castiel a little at least, though.

“Glad to hear you’ve got a friend like that,” Dean stated with a small smile.

“I would have thought I had at least two,” the angel replied matter-of-factly fixing the older Winchester with a stare and making the human feel like he was searching his very soul. A part of Dean basked in the knowledge that his angelic friend put that sort of trust into him. It made him feel rather good to know that apparently he was doing something right, after all.

“You absolutely do.”


	13. Chapter 13

**12**

 

“If I were you, I would think about angel-proofing my house,” Crowley stated casually, raising the glass of whiskey he was holding to Bobby, “It seems you have an infestation of those heavenly pests going on.”

The hunter didn’t even flinch. He wished he had any suitable weapons at hand, but it seemed that the demon had caught him surprisingly unprepared. Well, Crowley already had a claim on Bobby’s soul. It wasn’t like there was so much left that he could have done to him. Actually, as the human understood it, the demon would not touch a hair on his head before those ten years were over, anyway.

“Look who’s talking about pests,” the hunter replied in an even gruffer tone than usual. He didn’t intend to get into a discussion or argument of any sort with the demon, though. He just wanted to hear what Crowley wanted and get rid of the bastard again. Unfortunately, getting rid of him permanently didn’t seem to be an option right now.

“Bobby, Bobby, Bobby,” the demon said in a reprimanding tone, “And here I wanted to make you an offer you can’t refuse and give you some friendly advice for free on top of it.”

Bobby’s entire posture was outright hostile and that didn’t change after he heard Crowley’s words. The last time the demon had made him and offer he couldn’t refuse he had ended up selling his soul. Okay, he had known that it was risky and stupid to sort of trust a demon, but there really hadn’t been another option at the time and he didn’t regret making the decision he had. That didn’t mean that he didn’t want to have his contract obliterated, however.

“Moron. You will have to give me my soul back first, if you want to make a deal,” Bobby commented sarcastically. He didn’t have anything to deal with right now, after all. He also didn’t have anything to shoot the demon with either though, so the conversation would probably go on for another while.

“Didn’t my secretary send you the memo?” Crowley asked snarkily, “I’m not into sales anymore. It’s management now. You may call me the king of hell.”

The hunter didn’t know if he was supposed to laugh about it or curse loudly. A mixture of both would have been most appropriate, probably. Of course, the demon would have known how to use the entire situation with Lucifer for his own benefit. Crowley wasn’t the worst new leader that Bobby could have imagined, however. The demon was a textbook example of an opportunist and that was better than some lunatic bent to destroy the world any day.

“Let’s have a toast with holy water,” Bobby replied a little impatiently, because the forced small talk was getting on his nerves, “Did you actually have a reason to come here or are you just trying to steal my time?”

The time which was limited thanks to the demon in the first place.

“As nice as the prospect of having your delightful presence for all eternity is,” Crowley answered casually, emptying his glass and putting it on the kitchen counter, “I thought you might prefer to run a few errands for me, now, instead.”

This time Bobby just laughed. It was only a short laugh, but he couldn’t have prevented himself from doing that if his life had depended on it. Yes, he would run errands for the king of hell and then he’d go and take yoga lessons!

“Most demons are willing to follow whoever happens to be on top,” Crowley went on speaking, completely ignoring the reaction he had just gotten out of the hunter, “But there are still a few extremists who are hung up on Lucifer being the rightful ruler of all demons and all these stupid things of the past. I trust you remember Lucifer’s biggest fans Ruby and Lilith? That’s the level of devotion we are talking about.”

Damned if Bobby didn’t feel some satisfaction knowing that the demon had a few problems of his own to solve right now, but he had the very bad feeling that Crowley was going to try to share his problems with him. Hearing the demon compare the insurgents he was speaking about with two of the most troublesome demons they had dealt with in the past didn’t make Bobby want to do a happy dance, either.

“I’ve got your soul. You want your soul back,” the demon pointed out so casually that Bobby wanted to punch him hard for it and he would have too, if Crowley had stood a little closer to him, “I’ve got a couple of demons I really want to get rid of. You like killing demons. It’s a win-win.”

The problem with making deals of whatever kind was that they only worked when you could trust that the one you made them with wouldn’t screw you over. The hunter knew better than to even hope that maybe Crowley would keep his word this time around. At the same time he didn’t think that he had much to lose here. They were probably talking about demons they would have hunted sooner or later, anyway.

“I’ll give you a note when one of them resurfaces,” the demon stated, obviously very confident that he already knew the answer Bobby was going to give to his offer.

Crowley picked his glass up again – no need to leave anything holding traces of his DNA around hunters, after all – and apparently prepared himself to leave before he gave Bobby another look. “As for the free advice I promised; Lucifer’s followers are not very fond of the little vessel who could and are on a moose hunt. You might want to keep an eye on the Sasquatch.”

The demon was gone before Bobby could have said anything more, but Crowley wasn’t the one he really wanted to talk to that very moment, anyway. That little detail also explained why the king of hell had been so overly sure that Bobby couldn’t deny helping to hunt down those demons, too.

The older hunter hurried to locate Dean and the two angels and didn’t give them a chance to voice their surprise at his sudden and somewhat dramatic entrance.

“Where’s your brother?”

 

* * *

 

 

Getting Dean to hand over the keys to the Impala had been surprisingly easy which told Sam two things. First of all, his brother really didn’t want to go shopping for any more baby stuff and also Castiel hadn’t told the his brother about his little blackout.

The younger Winchester didn’t think that he would have gotten a chance to drive his older brother’s beloved car, if Dean had had the slightest worry that he might pass out behind the wheel. Well, Sam wouldn’t have gotten behind the wheel, especially with a baby in a car seat next to him, if he thought that that might happen, anyway.

He was completely sure that he was absolutely safe as long as there was something that needed his focus, though. He just couldn’t allow himself to get lost in his thoughts which was a part of the reason why he was describing the way to the city to Gabriel as he was driving. The greater part was that he couldn’t maintain body contact with the infant while he was driving and so he needed some other possibility to keep the archangel happy. Apparently, talking to him worked well enough.

The younger Winchester wasn’t sure if Gabriel was even listening to a word he was saying sometimes, but the way the baby started to complain if he didn’t say something for a while gave him a pretty good reason to believe that talking to the infant really made a difference.

They reached the baby store without even the hint of an incident and Sam opted to just take the baby out of the car seat instead of taking the carrier part inside with him. The archangel seemed to prefer it that way too, because he squealed happily and pressed himself up to the younger Winchester as much as possible the very second he got a chance to do it.

Sam had realized that he had severely underestimated the time Gabriel was likely to spend as a baby when he had bought clothes for him the first time. He also had underestimated how often an infant might need a change of clothes because of excessive drooling, being a messy eater or just getting dirty in some other way. Or he had overestimated the times they usually did their laundry. Whatever the case was, they were basically out of things to dress Gabriel with.

“Should we try to get you that stupid leather jacket to shut uncle Dean up?” the younger Winchester chuckled as he took the baby to the clothing section, “Maybe he’ll settle for something with jeans?”

Yes, six days into the entire archangel baby thing Sam found it pretty easy to handle Gabriel and he was getting much too used to having him around. He tried – and frequently failed – not to let Dean see that he actually enjoyed the glimpses of a different and somewhat simpler life being mainly responsible for the wellbeing of one infant instead of the entire freaking world gave him. At least, Gabriel gave him completely clear signs that he was doing things right very frequently which was something the world never did.

“I’m just not sure you’re the type for plaid,” the younger Winchester mused as he picked up a little shirt that looked a lot like something he or Dean might have worn, “Okay, seeing as you’re awake this time…”

Sam just picked out different things he could imagine buying for the infant and added anything Gabriel tried to grab or squealed at to their shopping basket. The archangel’s taste seemed to be closer to what the younger Winchester would have bought for a baby than to what Dean might have picked, anyway. They had quite a few things in bright colors and with all sorts of cartoony beings before Sam decided to take mercy on his brother and grabbed a pair of jeans and a simple black shirt saying ‘I rock’. Maybe it would help Dean to bond with the infant, if he looked a little manlier. No matter how ridiculous the younger Winchester thought that was.

Sam took a quick glance at his watch and decided that they hadn’t been gone long enough for anyone to freak out, so he decided that they had enough time to go and take a quick look at the section with the bathing things. Some baby friendly shampoo couldn’t hurt and a couple of toys sounded reasonable, too. He even found one that looked like a car and was supposed to float.

“Panda bear or duck?” the younger Winchester asked the infant on his arm with an amused smile as he looked at the towels on display and frankly those two had looked the cutest to the human.

“Duck it is,” Sam decided when Gabriel squealed and bounced on his arm at the sight of the bright yellow towel with the duck face in the corner that would act as a hood, too.

Just a moment later the infant huddled against his caretaker’s chest as much as he could whimpering pitifully, though.

The younger Winchester automatically tried to hush him, even as he put the basket down and reached for the gun he had safely tucked away in the waistband of his jeans. He hadn’t heard the archangel make sounds quite like that ever before and it scared him a little.

It seemed that there was only one other person in the aisle with them, but once Sam got a good look at the middle aged man’s face there was no doubt that he was the reason for Gabriel’s freak-out. The murderous intent was clearly to be seen even before his eyes flashed completely black for a second.

“How did you get out?” the demon growled which was the moment the archangel baby began to cry in earnest. If Sam hadn’t already wanted to send the son of a bitch back to hell before, he surely did now!

The younger Winchester was closing his fingers around the handle of his gun, but he knew he could barely fire it in the middle of a store without attracting a lot of attention.

“You get the hell away from us before I send you back to where you came from,” Sam threatened completely seriously, as if he actually had something up his sleeve. The only things he had were one very frightened baby and a gun that was pretty much useless under the circumstances, though.

“I’d like to see you try,” the demon replied coldly as he advanced on the hunter and the infant.

The younger Winchester did the only thing he could think of and kicked against the basket standing next to his foot as hard as he could and hit the demon with it, distracting him long enough to get a chance to grab Gabriel more firmly and run. The problem was that he couldn’t even just try to reach the Impala and drive off, because he couldn’t simply throw Gabriel into the co-driver’s seat and hope the baby was okay. He didn’t get anywhere close to the exit of the shop before the demon caught up with them and cornered them again, anyway. He took one more step toward the human and the infant and was too focused on the younger Winchester to notice the slight shift in the energy of the room that happened when the baby’s cries grew in volume even more.

The demon only noticed his mistake when it was too late, already.

All the glass in the store seemed to shatter at the same time and Sam could hear a few people scream in terror before the high pitched sound that – just like everything else – probably originated from Gabriel drowned out everything else.

The younger Winchester blanked out at basically the same moment as the demon burned out of its host body.


	14. Chapter 14

**13**

 

“Sammy!” Dean’s voice barely made it through the haze Sam seemed to be lost in, but before he could try to somehow find his way out of it, he was violently pulled back in.

“I really wish Dean could see you now…” Lucifer whispered.

“Come on, Sam,” the older Winchester’s voice seemed to be further away, but at the same time more insistent.

“What do you think big brother would think, if he could see how fast you broke?” the devil claimed all of Sam’s attention for himself and traced a finger over the side of the younger Winchester’s face nearly tenderly which somehow made it even worse.

“Oh please, just give the guy some rest,” another voice with a British accent and it took Sam a few moments to even put the right name to it. Balthazar. Balthazar whom he hadn’t even known before…

“Not so stubborn and strong-willed now, are you?” Lucifer hissed, forcing the human to look at him.

“You shut the hell up and do something!” Dean again. Sam tried to cling to his brother’s voice, because he wanted to hear it. He wanted to believe that being somewhere close to his older brother was the thing that was real, even if that reality made less sense than the other one, that very moment.

“I’m not sure I’m in the mood today. Maybe if you beg prettily enough…” the devil offered and the younger Winchester just about lost it, because this game was so familiar to him that it couldn’t feel anything but completely real.

“There is nothing physically wrong with your brother, Dean,” Castiel’s voice.

“Beg!” Lucifer demanded in a relatively quiet tone that was deafening to Sam, anyway.

“Nothing wrong? How the fuck is this not wrong?” his older brother yelled. The younger Winchester could barely hear him, though.

“I…” Sam choked out with great difficulties, even though no sound came over his lips in the real world.

“Well done, dumbass, you upset the baby!” Balthazar’s words didn’t really register with the unconscious human, but the cries of the infant did.

“Say it, Sam!” the devil shouted with a tinge of desperation to his tone that didn’t make any sense to the younger Winchester. Lucifer was the one who had the human completely unable to move and at his mercy, after all.

“Great idea, too. Not like an entire store exploded last time that happened!” The wailing became more insistent and Sam wanted nothing more than to comfort the child the sounds came from.

“Please, I…” the younger Winchester whispered in a broken tone even as he began to open his eyes slowly, “Please, just…”

A few minutes earlier he would have known exactly what he was begging for and who he was pleading with, but the closer he got to full consciousness the surer he was that he just wanted to get someone’s attention. Everything Lucifer had said and done got hazier the clearer the world around him became.

The younger Winchester was greeted by the confused looks of his brother, Bobby and the two adult angels as soon as he managed to open his eyes completely and take his surroundings in. He tried and failed to sit upright and sunk back deeper into the couch instead.

“Sam?” Dean asked in a tone that was so clearly worried that it spoke volumes about the gravity of the situation they must be in, even if the younger Winchester didn’t quite get it, that very moment.

“I’m fine,” he replied before he even attempted to remember how exactly he had gotten onto the couch in Bobby’s living room with everyone standing around him, staring at him like they were surprised that he had woken up at all.

Sam faintly remembered taking Gabriel out to get some more clothes. He remembered wanting to buy a towel with a duck motive on it. But then there had been a demon, a lot of noise and some sort of shock wave.

“Like hell you are!” Dean argued hotly, but helped his younger brother to get into a sitting position, noticing quite relieved that he could keep himself upright.

“You were in the middle of an uncontrolled outburst of angelic energy,” Castiel added in a serious tone.

Sam really wanted to tell him to stop staring at him like he might explode any second, but he couldn’t quite find the energy to do it and he was distracted by Balthazar rocking Gabriel in an attempt to stop the infant from crying his little eyes out. It looked like the blonde angel didn’t really know how to accomplish that, however.

“Frankly, I’m surprised your insides weren’t pureed,” Balthazar commented casually when he finally managed to make the baby stop crying for a moment by tickling his belly, “Or anyone else’s, for that matter.”

The contrast between the things the angel had just said and the way he was making faces for Gabriel’s amusement just a second later was big enough to make it nearly funny. Nobody was laughing, however.

“Gabriel…” Sam mumbled, looking toward the infant. He wasn’t quite sure what he had meant to say himself, though.

He was quite sure that the baby was relatively fine, but getting the confirmation for that would have been nice, anyway. It seemed like a completely safe guess that the infant had been the source of the aforementioned uncontrolled outburst of angelic energy, but – again – knowing for sure would have been nice. Last but not least, he wanted to have the archangel back with him, but the younger Winchester could barely say that out loud.

“Not one scratch on the little bugger,” Balthazar stated. He thankfully chose to give in to the insistent whining coming from the infant pretty much instantly and simply handed him over to the human.

The archangel made a contented noise as he settled back into the younger Winchester’s arms which made Sam smile despite the annoyed looks his brother was shooting his way. Hey, he had apparently just avoided becoming a bloody splatter on the floor of a baby store of all places by a hair; he was allowed to smile at whatever the hell he wanted!

“Excuse me for not being crazy about you cuddling the little armed atom bomb!” Dean huffed.

It became very clear that there must have been a discussion about this exact topic in the time Sam had been unconscious by the way the older Winchester looked at Bobby. The younger Winchester guessed that the humans and the angels weren’t of the same opinion in the matter, because Castiel and Balthazar were giving each other looks, too.

“We were attacked by a demon,” Sam finally pointed out, petting Gabriel’s hair absentmindedly, “He only reacted to the threat.”

Really, if the archangel hadn’t done whatever he had done they would probably both be dead or worse, so the younger Winchester found it a little hard to think about the use of Gabriel’s powers as an entirely bad thing. Granted, he didn’t have all the information yet and was probably not seeing the bigger picture as things were.

“His _reaction_ leveled the entire store and didn’t only kill the demon but injured more than ten people, including you,” Dean shot back immediately.

They were rather lucky that basically everything that might have pointed to Sam or any of them really had been destroyed when Gabriel had unleashed his powers, too. Hell, they were lucky that those people were only injured and not dead, as Balthazar had explained earlier.

“I think what your brother is trying to say is this,” the blonde angel quipped completely unhelpfully, “You better switch to internet shopping.”

Sam idly wondered if Gabriel and Balthazar had been friends before the archangel had left heaven. They seemed like two peas in a pod. Then again, the infant seemed to get along with the blond angel well enough, but he clearly preferred the younger Winchester’s presence.

Not that Sam thought that it could have been said that he and Gabriel had a good connection until about a week ago. The way the infant was trying to crawl right into the younger Winchester’s skin for all it looked like was a more than clear sign that the archangel at least felt like something had changed about that, though.

“What I’m saying is that Gabriel is far too dangerous to keep him around,” Dean stated in a harsh tone. He had had to deal with Balthazar’s stupid comments for a while now and they were starting to seriously annoy him. The angel was quite lucky that he hadn’t been shot at, yet. The older Winchester would have contemplated banishing the bastard, but since Castiel was around too that was out of the question unfortunately.

“What’s the alternative, Dean?” Sam asked with a hint of sarcasm that earned him a puzzled look from the baby archangel, “If he’s too dangerous for us to handle, who do you think should give it a try instead?”

All the people the younger Winchester really trusted where currently in the same room and they all were in basically the same troubles Sam and Dean were in, so he just didn’t see any other options than to keep the infant with them.

“Besides, it was fine until we ran into that demon,” Sam added, tightening his grip on the baby as if his brother might actually try to take him away without further warning.

“Right, no problem then,” Dean shot back sarcastically, “It’s not like that happens to us every other day!”

Of course, the older Winchester had a point and it was a very good one even. That didn’t mean that Sam had to like it, though. Also, his own point about there not being an alternative still stood, as well.

“You are both right,” Bobby told the Winchesters before the two brothers could get into an unnecessary and fruitless argument, “Which is the reason why he should be with someone less likely to run into any demons.”

Again, Sam had to admit that Bobby was right. He still didn’t like it, but he also had to say that the possibility to give the archangel to the care of someone more fit to give him the treatment a baby deserved had crossed his mind before.

“We can’t just dump an archangel baby on some unsuspecting civilian,” the younger Winchester insisted, anyway. Sure, Gabriel might not see a reason to smite anyone, if he was in a perfectly ordinary environment, but he had made things appear out of thin air before.

“Damn right, you can’t!” Balthazar commented, “He might be prone to drooling on expensive suits, but he’s still one of our brothers!”

Sam snorted amusedly at that, but he was glad to have at least one person on his side in the matter. It also became even more apparent that he must have missed a couple of things while he had been passed out once more. He was distracted from the thoughts of all the things that might have happened while he had been reliving some of his memories from the cage and from thinking about the memories themselves when Gabriel bounced in his lap and made small, complaining noises. The younger Winchester readjusted his grip on the infant so the archangel had a better view of the room as a whole before he had to focus on other things again.

“You didn’t exactly volunteer to take care of him, either,” Dean huffed, clearly only looking at Balthazar, but Castiel felt the need to get involved into the discussion, anyway.

“Considering the state heaven is in right now, it just wouldn’t be wise to bring Gabriel there,” the angel stated in a very serious tone, “I cannot say what Raphael would do, if he got his hands on him, but I daresay it wouldn’t be good for any of us.”

It went without saying that Castiel, Balthazar and all the angels that might side with them were at least as much in danger to be attacked by someone at any moment than the Winchesters were, anyway. It really was too bad that the one angel who knew how to avoid being detected by the forces of both heaven and hell was the one that couldn’t contribute to the topic currently.

“If any of you idjits would ever bother to listen for more than a second,” Bobby interrupted the ongoing conversation, “I would have told you that I know the right person to do the job, already.”

Sam was desperately trying not to show any trace of the dread he was starting to feel. There was no reason for him to get nervous or afraid and he knew it. If Bobby said that he knew the right person then he could trust that Gabriel would be in good hands and that was what the younger Winchester ultimately wanted for the infant.

“She’s not a hunter, but knows her way around the supernatural, especially when it comes to warding all sorts of things off,” the older hunter told them, “And she owes me.”

The description sounded good to the younger Winchester. He looked at the baby in his arms contemplatively for a few moments. Sam liked to think that he had a say in this, after all. Chances were that he didn’t really, though.

“Perfect,” Dean chose that very moment to prove his younger brother’s gut feeling right, “Call her!”

The younger Winchester would have fought tooth and nail, if it wasn’t for one simple fact; he knew that this was the right thing to do. Gabriel deserved a caretaker who knew what they were doing. He deserved to be in the hands of someone who wasn’t more of a ticking time bomb than Dean thought the baby archangel was. He deserved to have a good time while his second – or more like first – childhood lasted.

“Yeah, call her,” Sam agreed with his older brother which seemed to surprise Dean and Bobby positively while it surprised Castiel and Balthazar negatively. The younger Winchester didn’t have the resources to think about this too much as he was trying very hard not to question himself too much, however.


	15. Chapter 15

**14**

 

“You know what babies normally get to do?” Sam asked Gabriel in a soft tone, “Playgrounds. You’ll love it.”

The younger Winchester hoped that the archangel’s new caretaker would be up for things like that, at least. Then again, Elizabeth was meant to be a perfectly normal woman with an interest in and knack for protective magic, so he wasn’t too worried that she might not be willing to take Gabriel to playgrounds and things like that. Hey, maybe she’d even get some vegetables into the infant, but that was probably asking for too much.

The baby archangel huffed out a breath and snuggled up to Sam even more, as if he wanted to say ‘I know exactly what you’re up to’ and ‘Don’t you think I’ll let go that easily!’. Of course, he probably just wanted to be cuddled without there being a deeper meaning to it. Gabriel was quite the cuddler, after all.

“Just try to stay away from clowns,” the younger Winchester added on an afterthought as he stroked the baby’s soft hair with the hand he didn’t need to simply hold him.

Chances were that the clowns would have good reasons to be afraid of Gabriel instead of the other way around, though. Sam had to say that he quite liked the thought that the infant’s biggest worry might be staying away from annoying, bordering on terrifying, clowns very soon now. That was the way life was supposed to be like for a baby. Not that the younger Winchester would actually know anything about that.

Sam was rather close to just admitting that he would miss having the infant around, but he bit the statement back and was very glad he had when he noticed that Balthazar had entered the room. Out of the two adult angels the blonde man was the one who disapproved of their plan the most. He was the one who clearly showed the disapproval, at least. It always was hard to judge what Castiel really thought of anything.

“You’re being a blithering idiot and you know it,” Balthazar stated without preamble.

The younger Winchester couldn’t decide if he was glad or nearly a little sorry that nobody else was around to hear the talk. He didn’t assume that the angel would have changed anything about his statement, if Dean or Bobby had been around to hear it, but he thought that he would find it easier to find the reasonable and right things to say himself.

“Mere days ago you wouldn’t even let me hold Gabriel for a minute. Yet, here you are, agreeing to hand him over to some stranger like it’s nothing,” Balthazar went on with his rant. He hadn’t given the other man a chance to say anything and he wasn’t particularly interested into anything the human might have had to say, anyway.

The baby archangel made a few confused noises. He had clearly picked up on the changed atmosphere in the room, but it wasn’t outright hostile or even negative enough for him to know what exactly to make of it. Gabriel very quickly went back to sucking on his pacifier contently when Sam readjusted their position so he could hold Gabriel closer and rub his back soothingly, though.

“I’m not even sure if you’re being exceptionally stupid, egoistic, or outright delusional,” Balthazar snorted.

A part of Sam wanted to shout that he was trying everything not to be egoistic. He wasn’t giving Gabriel away because he didn’t want to have him around anymore! He was trying to do the right thing and make sure that the infant was getting the care he needed without being in danger all the damn time. If Balthazar thought that that made him egoistic or delusional, he chose to look at things in a very simplistic way.

“I’ve got to go pack his bag,” Sam said instead of any of the other things that were running through his mind, “You could hold him while I do that.”

Balthazar huffed and threw his arms over his head in exasperation before he turned around, muttering something about stupid humans and better things he could be doing. Sam even thought the heard the word ‘orgy’ somewhere in the near silent rant, but he didn’t really want to think about that.

“He’s wrong,” the human whispered to the archangel as he was carrying him upstairs, “You’ve got to know that, Gabe. It’s only for your own good.”

The baby fixed Sam with his golden-brown eyes, looking nearly pensively for a moment before he tried to hug the tall human with his little arms.

The younger Winchester really tried to smile at that, but the lump in his throat wouldn’t let him.

 

* * *

 

 

A surprised, slightly scared shriek announced the arrival of their guest.

“That really was…” Elizabeth stammered, bouncing the baby on her arm more to calm herself than the baby who seemed mostly amused, anyway, “Not what I expected when you said ‘flying’.”

Castiel, of course, just stood next to her stiffly and looked slightly puzzled by the woman’s reaction. He had transported them with the use of his wings, so he didn’t think there was a word more fitting than the one he had used. Then again, Dean’s reactions to flying were a further indication that humans saw these things a little differently.

“It seems the human perception is too slow to discern between our kind of flight and instant teleportation,” the angel stated thoughtfully.

Elizabeth blinked a couple of times and was just about to ask if Castiel was really saying that there was a noticeable time-span between disappearing from one place and reappearing at another to him when her attention was claimed by other things.

“I didn’t know you had one of those yourself,” Bobby commented, scratching the side of his head as he noticed the baby the woman had on her arm, “It’s good to see you.”

Sam noticed that Gabriel’s attention was drawn to the other baby in the room pretty much instantly which the younger Winchester chose to take as a good sign.

“I’ve only had him for ten months,” Elizabeth replied with an amused smile, “And this has to be your little angel.”

To tell the truth, she had thought that Bobby was just messing with her when he had called and told her what he was asking her to do. Right up to the point where Castiel had appeared out of thin air just as the older hunter had warned her he would. It wouldn’t have been Bobby’s style to make jokes like that anyway, but the old man suddenly deciding to try out telephone pranks had still sounded more reasonable than the actual existence of angels.

“The little angel that blew up an entire store when he got scared,” Balthazar pointed out in a perfectly casual tone, “Are you sure you know what you are signing up for?”

Castiel shot his brother a warning glare. He had had the time to have a short, serious talk with Dean earlier and while the angel still thought that there was a reason why God had put Gabriel in Sam’s care, Dean had also convinced him that the reason might have been to find another home for him while they searched for a way to end Gabriel’s punishment. They really had other things to do than care for an infant at every hour of the day anyway and from what he had seen the place where Elizabeth and her son were living was well protected from demons and monsters.

“That was only because a demon threatened them,” Dean commented and gave his brother an annoyed look of his own when Sam shot him one of his ‘Dude, really?’ glares. Fine, so maybe he was applying double standards here, but as far as the life of a non-hunter was concerned this really shouldn’t be an issue. Most people never ran into a single demon in their lives, after all.

The younger Winchester finally carried the infant archangel over to the two newcomers. They needed to get accustomed to each other sooner rather than later, anyway. Gabriel’s interest in the other baby had been rather short-lived for all it looked like, however. His entire focus was on Sam and on playing with the human’s hair.

“I’m pretty sure I understand the situation,” Elizabeth stated and reached for the archangel’s head, petting his hair to see how he would react to her.

Gabriel looked at the younger Winchester and scrunched up his face in confusion for a moment, as if he was trying to say ‘Did you grow a third arm?’. Sam knew that he tended to give the baby way too much credit when he was trying to interpret what his facial expressions meant, but it was amusing, anyway.

“Please, you act like nobody else ever touched you before,” Sam chuckled quietly and held Gabriel more against his side so the baby had an easier time looking toward the woman and her son.

The archangel finally seemed to rediscover that there was someone else of his general size around – even though the other baby was a bit bigger than he was – and squirmed until he could reach for the other infant. The happy expression on Gabriel’s little face made Sam hope that the archangel might not even notice his absence all too much. At the same time the thought that that might happen made a cold lump was form in his guts.

“Okay, Mark, what do you say? Do we take… him home with us?” Elizabeth asked the baby on her arm in a gentle tone, only faltering for a moment when she realized that she didn’t even know the name of the little angle. The way her son was babbling at the other baby happily pretty much settled the topic. It also helped that she owed Bobby and had already told him she would do this, anyway.

“His name’s Gabriel,” Sam told her with a short, small smile.

“Of course,” Elizabeth replied a little unsure because of the name she had just been given, “What else would a baby angel be called?”

It wasn’t really a question, but Balthazar chose to answer it, anyway.

He wasn’t really hoping for a last minute change of heart from any of the people involved, but he didn’t see a reason not to voice his general disapproval with the situation however the hell he wanted.

“Oh, you know, Balthazar, Castiel, Rachel,” he shrugged lightly, “But those are just the names for the weirdos, not for the archangels.”

The brunette woman stopped stroking Gabriel’s hair for a moment as the meaning of the statement sunk in. It didn’t really make a difference, but having an actual archangel – in the form of a baby only a little younger than her own son – at her hands felt surreal, even after already knowing that angels existed.

“Does that change anything?” Bobby asked after a short moment of silence.

Elizabeth shook her head. No, it didn’t. She had signed up for taking a baby angel in for as long as they would take to find a spell or whatever it would be in the end to change him back into the adult he was supposed to be. So, it wasn’t just any angel but an archangel, but she didn’t see how that would affect the decision she had made.

“He might make food or toys appear when he really wants to have something in particular,” Sam warned the woman with a small smile, “He’s crazy about pudding and applesauce and for all we know it doesn’t really matter what he eats, so…”

The younger Winchester carefully handed Gabriel over to Elizabeth before he could start to stall even more, because that was exactly what he had just tried to do. The infant looked at his caretaker confused for a moment, but was distracted when Mark started to pat around in his face. Sam just had to smile slightly when the archangel managed to somehow catch the other baby’s hand and sucked on his fingers with a way too smug expression for a kid his age.

“His things are in there,” Dean explained for the woman as he handed the bag his brother had packed earlier to Castiel, “We’ll give you a call when anything comes up.”

Chances were they wouldn’t hear from each other for quite some time, though. They hadn’t been able to come up with anything going through Bobby’s library, after all. Besides, Crowley was trying to keep them occupied as well and Raphael was a problem they couldn’t ignore, either.

“See you when we’ve got a solution for your little problem,” Sam muttered as he stroked Gabriel’s head one last time. He probably shouldn’t have done that, because the infant suddenly looked at him highly alarmed and about to cry.

Castiel thankfully transported the three of them back to Elizabeth’s home before the first sound came out of the baby’s mouth, though.

“Hope you’re happy now,” Balthazar commented silently enough so only Sam could hear him before the blonde angel disappeared, too.

Sometimes the younger Winchester wasn’t so sure if he even knew what happiness felt like anymore, but he knew for sure that this wasn’t it. Actually, he felt more like Zachariah had come back from the dead to mess around with his insides some more. The other, more fitting comparisons he could have come up with were of the sort that might have made him black out and were carefully avoided.

“Alright, let’s get some work done,” Dean stated with more enthusiasm than he actually felt. He wasn’t stupid, he knew his brother was hurting, but that only made him think that they really should have separated him from Gabriel much sooner. As things were, he’d just have to make sure that Sam would be okay and that was something he had a lot of experience with. Some normalcy – for their standards – seemed like a good start.


	16. Chapter 16

**15**

 

“No!” Dean practically yelled into his mobile phone, “You’re giving us a real deal right the fuck now or you can forget it!”

Sam blinked a couple of times and looked at his brother warily as he always did right after waking up, these days.

“I want a number Crowley,” the older Winchester insisted, trying to focus on his driving a little at least, “How many demons are there and how many of them do we have to kill before you give Bobby his soul back?”

They were rather lucky that they were on an empty street some time after sunrise, because Dean was paying even less attention to any traffic rules than he usually did.

The younger Winchester sat more upright in his seat and tried to follow the conversation his brother was leading, because he knew that it was something important that concerned him, too. He found it very hard to give a damn, however. It wasn’t that he didn’t care about Bobby’s soul, but he had only just woken up from a couple of nightmares that still wouldn’t let him go.

Sam was only grateful that his dreams seemed to paralyze him enough that he didn’t actually kick and scream. He absolutely didn’t need for Dean to shoot him even more of those dreaded worried glances than he already did.

“Why should we take care of even one more of them for you if you don’t cooperate, huh?” the older Winchester asked somewhat smugly. He clearly was thinking that he had made a point that would force Crowley to give in a little at least.

Fact was, they had been hunting down demons for the king of hell for just over a week now and the demon had never given them anything more but a name and a location, sometimes just the location.

The younger Winchester didn’t actually care too much. Well, he wasn’t caring about anything all too much, not that he would have said that out loud or shown it all too clearly.

“Son of a bitch!” Dean yelled and closed his phone with a loud snap that nearly made his brother flinch, “Do you want to know what he said? Do you?”

Sam knew that he didn’t have to say anything, because his brother would tell him, anyway. He obviously was even more annoyed with the demon than he usually was and he wouldn’t need to be prompted to say something under those circumstances. Hell, lately Dean had never been the one of them who needed to be prompted to say anything.

“This one’s currently posing as a school teacher and if we want to sit back and watch the kids getting tortured that’s fine with him,” the older Winchester hit the steering wheel in frustration.

That got Sam’s full attention finally. If Dean was hitting the Impala it was something like domestic violence in his brother’s eyes. He had to be pretty damn close to exploding for that to happen.

“We’ll find something to use against him eventually, just give it time,” the younger Winchester stated lamely. If there was anything they seemed to have lately it was time. Sam very much felt like he had nothing but time, anyway.

“Gee, you’re such a great motivational speaker,” Dean snarked before he forced himself to take a few deep, controlled breaths to calm down. It wouldn’t help them any, if he jumped at his brother’s throat, even if it might feel damn good for a moment. Besides, as little as Sam fought back lately it would feel like kicking a puppy that refused to even bark back.

“And you’re not much fun lately,” the older Winchester added in a much calmer tone. He had thought that his brother would pull himself together with time for over a week now and he was getting tired of simply waiting. Dammit, they had things to do! He needed his brother at the top of his game!

“’Cause we both know that between the two of us I’m always the heart of the party,” Sam pointed out dryly. Alright, they obviously were at the point where Dean would call him out on being a whiny bitch, so he’d have to be even more careful about the things he let show in the future.

“Dude, compared to you on a good day the pope is a party animal,” the older Winchester quipped before he got more serious again, “But you’ve reached a low that not even David Hasselhoff could limbo under.”

The younger Winchester shook his head and tried his best to give a sincere looking half-smile at that comparison.

“I don’t think he’s actually that good at the dance,” Sam commented with a snort.

“Trust me, man. You can’t sink much lower than that guy already has,” Dean shot back.

He was reasonably satisfied with the way the talk was going. It nearly felt like something from before… before his brother had come back from the cage not the way he had went into it. It wasn’t like the older Winchester was blaming him for that. Heck, he hadn’t come back from hell the way he had went in, either. Sam was just letting himself go at this point, though. It didn’t help that he refused to talk about it at all. Dean might have had a better – or at least realistic – understanding of the situation, if his brother had been willing to share with the class.

As things were the older Winchester chose to fight the uncomfortable silence that had quickly fallen between them once more by popping one of his tapes into the cassette deck. If the way Sam shook his head slightly in a mixture of amusement and annoyance looked fake, he chose to ignore it. Because hey, his brother was at least making an effort and that had to count for something.

 

* * *

 

 

“What the…?” Dean asked, still half asleep.

Whatever had woken him up hadn’t made him want to jump out of bed and reach for his gun immediately, so it couldn’t have been that bad. He still felt disoriented and grumpy, though.

“Son of a…” the older Winchester muttered under his breath as he sat up and got ready to tear Sam a new one for being up in the freaking middle of the night instead of catching some shut-eye and most importantly instead of letting Dean sleep. Okay, maybe that wasn’t what was most important, but you couldn’t ask a guy to be completely rational and have his priorities straight when he had just been woken up from a dream that included pie and strippers.

“You should stop calling _your brother_ that,” the younger Winchester pointed out without ever looking away from the screen of his laptop. Dean hadn’t spoken loudly, but the room was completely silent otherwise, so he had heard what his brother had said, anyway.

“Now you’re just trying way too hard, Sammy,” the older Winchester replied with a worried frown. He didn’t buy that his younger brother had gone from being a whiny bitch to making his stupid half-jokes right after Dean had called him out on it. He didn’t buy that there was anything heartfelt or real about the act his brother was trying to pull off, to be exact.

“Did you even go to sleep?” the older Winchester asked when he got no reaction from his younger brother. It was unnerving how Sam was just staring at the screen, not even giving a sign if he had heard the question at all. Apparently he had, though.

“Yeah, sure,” the younger Winchester replied with a shrug, “Just a while after you did.”

He really had, too. He simply hadn’t been able to sleep for long.

“Alright, let me rephrase that,” Dean groaned annoyed, “How long have you been asleep?”

The way Sam’s entire posture got defensive even before the bitchface was fully formed gave his older brother a pretty good idea about what the honest answer would be. Well, fucking great!

“Really, Dean? Do I have to look at the time every time I want to get up now?” the younger Winchester asked in a tone that was a lot more agitated than he had wanted it to come out as, “Why don’t I just freaking ask you next time I want to do anything?”

Okay, the truth was he had barely slept for a week and it wasn’t doing his mood any good.

It didn’t help that Dean apparently was watching every move he made with hawk eyes. It also didn’t help that his brother had been in hell much longer than he had, yet Dean was looking at him like he expected him to break because of the experience any second. Most of all it didn’t help that his older brother might just be right about that, though.

“Oh yeah, I’m just seeing things and you’re doing fine. How could I ever think otherwise?” the older Winchester snarked.

Dean braced himself for the argument he was sure would follow. The past week they had been back on the road, Sam had done everything to avoid talking about anything that was only loosely connected to his time in the cage and Gabriel. It was crystal clear that those things were eating at him, though.

“What do you want me to say, Dean?” Sam asked tiredly which alarmed his older brother a lot more than yelling would have.

“How about we start with the reason you’re…” the older Winchester took a short break to take a look at what his brother was even doing on his laptop, “Dude, are you playing Angry Birds?”

The younger Winchester just shrugged, looking only the tiniest bit uncomfortable. It was a game just like any other and compared to all the times he had caught Dean watching porn – on TV or on the computer – he thought this was nothing to be ashamed for. Besides, you could only play Solitaire so often before it got damn boring.

“Alright, why are you killing green pigs in the middle of the night?” the older Winchester asked. If he hadn’t been as worried about his younger brother as he was, he would have made much more fun of him for finding out about this little guilty pleasure.

Sam sighed deeply. He knew there were two ways he could play this. He could just go on avoiding to say anything and watch how Dean got progressively more frustrated with him, or he could just tell his brother that he hadn’t been able to catch an hour of actually restful sleep for just over a week now and deal with Dean freaking out. Both options didn’t sound all too good to the younger Winchester.

“Every time I fall asleep,” Sam started in a silent tone, looking back at his brother with a pained expression, “I’m right back in the cage.”

The younger Winchester fell silent after making that confession. He had to try rather hard to fight off the unwanted pictures that assaulted him when he was awake at times. He had become rather good at avoiding those flashbacks in the past days, but he hadn’t been able to find a way to battle the nightmares this far. Hell, he hadn’t even been able to find a way to make them any less emotionally draining.

“You’re dreaming of the bastards,” Dean repeated just to make sure that there were no misunderstandings there. He wasn’t really surprised by hearing that. His own time in hell had made for a few hellish – pun intended – and sleepless nights, too. The older Winchester was pretty sure that there was something more to the story, though.

“Of Lucifer, mostly,” Sam replied very quietly, yet matter-of-factly, “He’s been trying to mess with my perception of what is and isn’t real lately.”

Sometime in the past few days the devil had switched from the usual torture and bodily harm to a more sneaky approach. He had been trying to convince Sam that his real life was just an elaborate hallucination Lucifer could take away from him at any moment, to be exact. The younger Winchester would have liked to say that that didn’t really touch him, but considering that he had had the exactly same suspicion when he had first woken up in that hotel room in Walkerville the devil’s claim hit a little too close to home.

“Sam…” Dean started in a sort of warning tone that was meant to say something like ‘If you’re telling me that you weren’t mentally there during our last few hunts, I’ll have to punch you’.

“Don’t look at me like that. I know exactly what’s real!” the younger Winchester insisted.

“But? There was a ‘but’ there, Sam. Don’t think I haven’t heard that!” Dean demanded. He wouldn’t let Sam get away with things that were technically true or any other bullshit like that when they were talking about his sanity and safety!

“I don’t _feel_ it, okay?” his younger brother finally admitted with a deep sigh.

“Excuse me, what?” the older Winchester snapped despite his resolution to stay calm and just get Sam to talk about what was bothering him. It would have taken a much more patient person than Dean to stay composed after hearing the confession his brother had just made.

“You heard me,” the younger Winchester answered evasively and only made his brother lose his temper even more with it.

“I thought I heard you say that you _can’t_ tell the difference after all,” Dean pointed out stormily.

“Being awake and dreaming doesn’t feel different, but I know which is which,” Sam persisted. Logically, he knew that it might only be a matter of time until that changed, but he wasn’t willing to discuss that possibility with Dean before he absolutely had to.

“Oh, that’s okay then,” the older Winchester replied sarcastically, “How long has this being going on?”

The younger Winchester shrugged and brought his focus back to the screen of his laptop where he closed the game and revealed that he must have been doing some research earlier, as well.

Dean would be lying if he said that he had a remotely good feeling about any of this and he would definitely be lying if he said that he didn’t want to grab his brother’s stupid, overly long hair and smack his face into the table.

He wasn’t sure if his younger brother’s refusal to say anything more came from the fact that all this had started around the time they had handed Gabriel over to Elizabeth, as he suspected personally, but it would have made sense. The older Winchester always had assumed that they had separated Sam from the archangel too late, but now he wondered if they had done the right thing by separating them at all for the first time.


	17. Chapter 17

**16**

 

“What the fuck happened back there?” Dean asked in a demanding tone, fixing his younger brother with a stare.

Sam really wanted to tell Dean to please pay attention to what he was doing with the needle, but he knew that provoking him even further would be a very bad move on his part. He was rather lucky that his brother had handed him a few painkillers and a glass of whiskey to wash them down with before he had started to stitch the wound.

As it had turned out, the demon they had been hunting really had been posing as one of the teachers at the local elementary school. The math teacher, to be exact. Dean hadn’t run out of quips to make about that for quite some time, not that Sam had appreciated any of them. His brother being utterly humorless hadn’t been that much of a red flag for the older Winchester, however. He hadn’t needed any more signs that his brother was everything but okay after the talk they had had the previous night, anyway.

To tell the truth, Dean had been rather close to simply chaining Sam to the closest available and suitable object just to make him stay away from the hunt, but he hadn’t had any problems with the other hunts they had done that week and a second pair of hands was always a good thing to have. Besides, he knew that forcing his younger brother to stay behind would have been a surefire way to make sure they wouldn’t be able to have any productive talks in the nearer future.

Dean couldn’t help thinking that he had made the wrong decision after all as he was trying his best to stitch up the knife wound the demon had managed to inflict on his brother’s left upper arm, however.

“I was trying to check if the janitor was still alive when the bitch jumped me,” Sam finally replied tiredly. The painkillers were doing their job just a little too well for his liking and he had been feeling both mentally and physically exhausted for a while already. It didn’t help that he didn’t want to fall asleep, though. However, the younger Winchester knew that he would eventually have to give in and give his body some rest, even if his mind wouldn’t be able to get any.

“Uhu,” Dean commented eloquently. He really wasn’t trying to punish his brother for the lie when the next two stitches were applied more roughly, but he was only human and getting annoyed wasn’t doing his focus on being careful and somewhat gentle any good.

“Dammit, Dean,” Sam complained half-heartedly, more because he figured he was expected to than because the pain really bothered him. The wound was deep and it hurt quite a bit, but it wasn’t that much compared to the injuries that were inflicted on him most nights when he was asleep.

“Dammit, Sam!” his older brother echoed, but kept surprisingly in control of his hands when he finished stitching up the wound and reached for the gauze to wrap it up with, “It’s bad enough that you got distracted and let your guard down, but the least you could do is not lie to me about it!”

The younger Winchester sighed deeply and didn’t reply.

It was true. He had seen the school’s janitor lie on the floor in a puddle of his own blood and his mind had supplied him with very unwanted images of Lucifer standing over Sam and narrating exactly what was happening in the human body as it was bleeding out. That was also how Sam knew that he would have taken quite some time to die from blood loss from the wound the demonic math teacher had inflicted on him and how he knew that, if or when it came that far, he’d really prefer a more severe wound that would kill him faster.

“What the hell, Sam?” Dean asked clearly agitated as he snapped his fingers directly in front of his brother’s face repeatedly. The vacant expression on the younger Winchester’s face was a dead giveaway that he had just blanked out on his older brother again and Dean was really unwilling to ignore that.

“We’ve had this discussion,” Sam replied much too casually for his brother’s liking.

The younger Winchester winced when Dean finished bandaging his upper arm and made the knot a little tighter than would have been strictly necessary. Sam knew exactly how he deserved that and he doubted that his brother had even done it completely on purpose, anyway.

“And you said there wasn’t a problem and that you had it under control!” the older Winchester pointed out sarcastically. He hadn’t believed it then and he believed it even less now. What he didn’t know was how he could get his younger brother to simply admit that there was a real problem here and that they needed to do something about it.

“So? I lied! I do that a lot, remember?” Sam shot back rather acidly.

“Now you’re just asking to be punched,” Dean snorted before he went on speaking in the reasonable tone the younger Winchester was seriously starting to dread, “Sammy, this isn’t… Yeah, fine. Maybe this is you with some fucked up case of post traumatic stress or whatever you wanna call it, but this isn’t the sort of guy you really are.”

The older Winchester had had the bad feeling that he didn’t know his own brother anymore at times when they had had Gabriel around, but as things were ‘at times’ had extended to ‘all the freaking time’ and he couldn’t even blame the archangel for that. Actually, he could blame the archangel’s absence, but he couldn’t blame the fact that he was gone on Gabriel.

“Maybe it is now,” the younger Winchester replied not quite as casually as he had meant to, because the thought that the rest of his life might be like this didn’t exactly make him want to celebrate. He could live with it and he would somehow deal with it, but it wouldn’t be enjoyable.

“It wasn’t a week ago!” Dean argued with a frustrated groan.

“Can we talk about this when I’m not dead on my feet?” Sam asked and stood up a little too abruptly which forced him to steady himself by grabbing the back of the chair. He hadn’t meant to do it, but it made a good point for why they really shouldn’t be having a serious discussion that very moment.

“Fine,” the older Winchester ground out, “Let’s talk about this when you’re able to make up excuses again!”

Luckily Dean’s mobile phone began to ring before either one of them could have made a comment that would have started a serious argument. He took one quick look at the display and decided to take the call outside.

It was rather obvious that Dean simply didn’t want his brother to know what the call was about, but Sam was distracted from that thought when he pulled the baby sized t-shirt with the picture of him and Gabriel cuddling from his duffle bag on the search for clean clothes.

The younger Winchester dropped onto the edge of the bed heavily and clutched the shirt to his chest.

 

* * *

 

 

“This is not the best moment,” Dean mumbled into the phone, making sure that he had completely closed the door behind himself. He really didn’t want Sam to overhear any of this before he knew what it was about. Chances were his younger brother wouldn’t need to concern himself with whatever news Elizabeth had at all, especially thinking of the state Sam was in. Hearing about any steps in development the archangel might have made in the past few days might have been a good thing under normal circumstances, but Dean had a feeling that it would only rub salt into his brother’s wounds as things were.

“I… oh God, Dean… I don’t…” Elizabeth was clearly hysterical and that couldn’t be a good sign, “Gabriel… he… he is gone.”

“He’s what?” Dean nearly yelled, because this was about the worst that could have happened under the circumstances, “How do you lose a baby that doesn’t even walk, yet?”

A second later he felt a little bad for getting louder, because the woman was clearly distraught and chances were that whatever had happened wasn’t really her fault. That didn’t change the facts, however. Sam would totally freak out once he heard that and that was just exactly what they needed!

“I… I don’t know… I put them into their beds and when Mark started to cry I checked on them and… he was just gone,” Elizabeth took a shuddering breath, “I checked everything, but all the protections are still up and… I called you immediately! I’m so sorry, so very sorry!”

The older Winchester really wanted to say something to calm her down, but his head was spinning with the possibilities of what might have happened and who might have abducted the archangel.

“I should have known something was wrong,” the woman added, sounding as if she was very close to tears, “He has been crying for more than an hour before…”

Dean froze after hearing that little detail. Sam had been hurt right around that time…

 

* * *

 

 

The younger Winchester had not moved in the slightest when he suddenly heard a sound that he had learned to associate with the arrival of an angel.

Before he had had enough time to properly process what had just happened, he already had an armful of very excited baby archangel snuggling up to his chest and squealing happily.

Sam couldn’t have done anything but stare dumbly for the first few seconds even if he had tried. He quickly shook the paralyzing surprise off and wrapped his arms around the infant tightly in complete disregard of the pain that move caused him.

“How did you…?” the younger Winchester whispered, stroking Gabriel’s hair with one hand while he just held him close with the other.

The baby turned his big golden eyes on the tall human and gave a big grin that Sam translated into something like ‘Come on, human. What can’t I do?’. The translation was probably a little off since the archangel had taken over a week to simply pop back into his life, though.

The younger Winchester wasn’t really concerning himself with the questions of the why and how, because he realized with a start that this right there was the very first thing in days that felt completely and undoubtedly real. Sam released a breath he didn’t know he had been holding just as the infant huffed out a deep breath and huddled against his preferred caretaker’s chest even more.

“I missed you,” the younger Winchester managed to admit in a quiet, definitely choked up tone.

It was quite obvious that Gabriel completely agreed with him by the way the infant was clenching Sam’s shirt like he expected the human to try and give him away again. The younger Winchester had already decided that that wasn’t going to happen under any circumstances, though. The moment he had first had the baby back in his arms he had known with absolute certainty that he couldn’t let go again.

Heck, the past week had shown that he really shouldn’t more than clearly, too. The first night after they had handed the archangel over to his new caretaker had been when the nightmares had really started to get to him in a way he couldn’t shake off no matter how hard he tried. It hadn’t taken a genius to figure out what the difference to all the other times the devil – the memory of him, anyway – had tormented him after he had gotten out of the cage was. He had hoped that he might somehow find it easier to deal with them once they got back to hunting as they always had, but that hope had been crushed very quickly.

Sam would be lying if he said that he hadn’t thought about calling Elizabeth and telling her that he wanted the baby archangel back nearly every day, but he had also known that he couldn’t do that. He might have been able to explain to Dean why they had to get Gabriel back with them, if he had said all the things that he had forced himself not to say or even think of too much. He wouldn’t have been able to take the baby away from the loving, safe and nearly completely normal environment he had wanted him to have in the first place, though. Not without feeling like he was the most selfish prick in the entire universe.

That Gabriel had returned to him out of his own free will changed everything and settled the matter even before Dean opened the door and stopped in his tracks when he saw the infant.

“Figures,” the older Winchester simply commented which surprised his brother. He pressed the redial button on his phone before Sam could say anything, though.

“Call off the troops. Gabriel is with Sam,” Dean told the woman on the other side with a heavy sigh.

“He’s staying with us, too,” the younger Winchester piped up just to make sure that his brother immediately got the message, too. He was fully prepared to fight about this and giving in was not an option this time.

“Yeah, we’ll pick up his stuff as soon as possible,” the older Winchester informed Elizabeth in a casual tone even as he shot his younger brother one of his ‘bitch please’ looks. Like he would have thought that leaving Gabriel behind only to have him pop up out of nowhere again would be a good idea. Only God knew – and probably didn’t care – where they would be and what they would be doing the next time the littlest archangel would just transport himself back to them.

Sam let out a relieved sigh and got himself and the infant comfortable on the bed, changing clothes be damned. The archangel seemed to like that idea, because he immediately tucked his little head under the younger Winchester’s chin and put his thumb into his mouth, sucking contently.

They were both fast asleep before Dean had even ended the call.


	18. Chapter 18

**17**

 

Sam wasn’t completely sure if babies at Gabriel’s age were supposed to apparently be able to remember individual people and figure out possible scenarios the way the archangel was, but he chose to be impressed with his little ward’s ability to do exactly those things, anyway.

“Just picking up your stuff, I promise,” the younger Winchester soothingly whispered to Gabriel who had a viselike grip on his over shirt.

The archangel had started to freak out a little as soon as Elizabeth had opened the door for them. It was possible to keep him reasonably calm as long as Sam kept a tight grip on him and nobody tried to make him let go of his human.

They didn’t plan to stick around for long, anyway. In fact, Dean was already stowing the infant’s things away in the Impala, minus one of the angel plushies they had gifted to the other baby, because Gabriel had made himself yet another duplicate during the car ride back to his temporary home.

“I’m glad you chose to keep him with you,” Elizabeth confessed with a small smile, “To tell you the truth, I wouldn’t have wanted to take him back.”

The woman gently stroked over the archangel’s cheek with the back of her hand, but stopped quickly when she noticed how tense the infant got because of the contact. They might have managed to give him the beginnings of abandonment issues. What an accomplishment.

“That bad?” Sam asked with a slight frown and looked at the infant questioningly, but – not surprisingly – there was no clear answer to be read from his expression. He just seemed happy with the way the younger Winchester hadn’t loosened his grip in the slightest and a little apprehensive that it might still happen.

“Oh, he’s a little angel,” the woman replied quickly, “He just seemed very… unhappy.”

Dean couldn’t help the short snort that escaped him at hearing that piece of information. That clearly made two of them.

“Sorry for the inconvenience,” Sam apologized with a small smile, rubbing Gabriel’s back in a gentle manner automatically. He really felt that he should let the baby know how sorry he was as well, but gestures might mean more than words on that front.

“No worries, he’s no worse than any other baby,” Elizabeth stated with a shrug, looking over to the crib that held her own son before she thought of something she really should say, “I should warn you, though. I think he picked up a couple of things from Mark.”

The younger Winchester nodded. So, they could expect some more ordinary infant behavior from the littlest archangel. Sam figured that it actually might be somewhat reassuring to see him do some more things that were described in any ‘Baby 101’ articles he had been skimming through.

“I think we’ll manage,” he replied confidently. Hey, they had come out of a demon attack nearly unscathed, everything else should be easy enough to handle.

Dean seemed to agree that anything Gabriel might have picked up from an ordinary baby couldn’t be that bad, so they just said their goodbyes and got back into the Impala.

 

* * *

 

 

“Oh please, go on _praying_ for us to swing our asses down here, it’s not like we have-,” Balthazar began to rant the very moment he and Castiel appeared in Bobby’s living room. He very quickly changed his opinion about being annoyed when his eyes landed on the younger Winchester and the infant he was holding, though. “Finally!”

Gabriel seemed to be very happy about his brother’s enthusiasm and bounced against Sam’s side like there was no tomorrow which made the human chuckle quietly. Dean had to admit that he definitely preferred this version of his brother, even if having that meant having the archangel around, too.

“So, you changed your mind,” Castiel stated solemnly. He had given the situation as much thought as he had had time to and had to admit that he really had not been satisfied with the way things had gone, so it was very good to see that the Winchesters had decided to bring Gabriel back to where he really belonged.

“Baby’s first flight forced us to,” Dean replied with a shrug.

Castiel tilted his head as he stared at his baby brother with a mix of fascination and confusion. They had already known that Gabriel possessed more power than his shrunken form suggested, but figuring out how to fly and locate a specific target at an unknown location by himself was still impressive. It was also quite likely that there hadn’t been too much conscious thought involved which spoke for an even higher power level.

“That’s actually impressive. He probably could take on Raphael power-wise,” Balthazar voiced the thought that had crossed Castiel’s mind, but which he had not let himself linger on, “Too bad he’d be pretty useless with an angel blade.”

The younger Winchester glared at the angel and tightened his grip on the baby.

“Pretty sure our super daddy won’t even let him play with toy weapons, so forget it,” Dean quipped. He didn’t appreciate that he wasn’t quite sure how Balthazar had even come up with that comment, but he didn’t want to ask for an explanation, either. Asking for an explanation would mean to get deeper into the topic and the older Winchester had to say that only talking about the possible intentional use of an infant as a weapon made him feel rather uncomfortable already, even if it was Gabriel. Not to mention that Sam would throw a bitch fit about it for sure.

“Besides, you guys are flying around all the time,” the younger Winchester added, more or less ignoring his brother’s wisecracking. He would have liked to hear the reasoning behind Balthazar’s last comment, however. These were the things about the baby archangel he wouldn’t find in any books, after all.

“But we know what we are doing,” Balthazar pointed out rather casually, “What would you find more impressive? Your grumpy old mentor taking on a vengeful spirit, or a toddler doing it?”

Bobby shook his head in annoyance at the comparison, but remained silent otherwise. If he ignored the stupid comparison and thought about what the question boiled down to, he had to say that it made more sense than he had first thought.

“So, you’re saying the fledgling is making up for brains with brawns,” the older hunter concluded. So, the little archangel’s powers were mostly limited by a lack of experience and the proper knowledge of how to use them. Wasn’t that just very promising thinking about a time when the archangel would actually have a deeper understanding of all the things he could do? Well, the general plan still was to skip the terrible twos and the even worse teenager stage and get him back to being an adult as quickly as possible. Bobby wasn’t quite sure if he still believed that that might happen, though.

“Gabriel is not a bird,” Castiel replied with a frown.

There probably wasn’t a correct term for baby angels, if there hadn’t been any before, Sam mused. He quite liked the word ‘fledgling’, though. It sounded like something small and cute and that was a pretty good description for the infant, especially when he was rubbing his head against the younger Winchester’s shoulder while looking up to him, begging for attention.

“Yeah, yeah, he’s not a plane and he’s not Superman, either,” Dean shrugged, “Anyway, what we wanted to talk about was a teeny tiny change in plans from our side.”

That their plans had somewhat changed should have been obvious, already. After all, taking Gabriel out of the picture had been part of the original strategy.

“Sam’s going on maternity leave,” the older Winchester added with a slight smirk. That wouldn’t get old anytime soon!

Hey, they had been able to agree on a new line of attack they all could live with pretty easily and Sam had used up their angst quota for the year all by himself over the past few days, so Dean would have to make do with making fun of his brother’s new mommy status. The older Winchester grinned to himself when he recalled the bitchface his brother had thrown at him through the rear view mirror – apparently, Gabriel couldn’t sit in the back by himself, even if he had his own car seat – when he had first brought up the possibility of an improved nickname that took the new circumstances into account. Alright, Samommy was a bit of a tongue twister, but Dean was sure that he would manage to make the word come over his lips easily with enough practice.

“Basically, I’ll trade places with Bobby,” Sam added, ignoring his brother’s wording in favor of actually explaining things, “He’ll go hunt those demons with Dean and I’ll stay here with Gabriel and look for information.”

Actually, he would look for information on a couple of things, man the phone lines and care for the baby. The younger Winchester wasn’t too worried that he would get bored anytime soon.

“We’re good as far as protection against demons and the like goes,” Bobby stated with the utmost confidence in the measures he had taken to make sure that his house stayed as monster free as humanly possible. As every hunter knew, there just wasn’t a hundred percent safety from everything that was out there, but he was also sure that they were leaving the younger Winchester in a position where he would be able to deal with any threats that might still come up.

Two problems remained, however. There was no protection against angels to speak of and all that only applied as long as they didn’t leave the house, of course.

Castiel slightly nodded toward Balthazar who shrugged and disappeared right after saying, “You’re the boss.”

“It seems that Gabriel is somehow hiding his presence from being detected very well,” Castiel spoke seriously, “But Balthazar will add as many protections as he can without banning us from the house, as well.”

The humans seemed reasonably satisfied with that. There wasn’t much more they could do without calling attention to the fact that they had done something. Calling any sort of attention to Bobby’s house would render the entire point of hiding there useless, however.

“Awesome,” Dean replied and gave Castiel a pat on the shoulder.

They had already spoken about Sam limiting the time he spent running around outside to strictly necessary occasions, but it seemed they would mostly have to worry about anyone or anything looking for the younger Winchester. They would just have to hope that Gabriel wouldn’t blow up any more stores, if they came across another demon, but what were the chances of getting so unlucky twice?

“How are things with Raphael going?” the older Winchester asked after a short moment of silence. They weren’t the only ones that were having things to deal with and if Castiel took the time to show up when they called for him, they should at least acknowledge that the angel was having problems of his own. Dean might have serious problems showing his emotions, but he could give those close to him subtle hints that would probably go right over his friend’s head anyway, though.

“As poorly as expected,” Castiel replied with the slightest hint of exasperation in his voice, “We have gained a few followers from the formerly undecided for our side, but the chances of ending this without a full-blown civil war seem as slim as… the book holding the written description of Crowley’s ethical code.”

Sam couldn’t help staring at their angel friend incredulously before he shook his head with a slight chuckle while Bobby simply scratched the side of his head. It was a very Castiel-esque thing to say, but at the same time it was unlike the angel to use sarcastic statements that somewhat worked.

“Way to make a strange but fitting comparison,” Dean snorted amusedly and patted Castiel’s shoulder again. He probably should have stopped doing that, but he was somewhat proud of his friend for making a snarky comment like that. The older Winchester didn’t quite like the thought about Cas being to him what Gabriel was to Sam that popped into his head, so he chose to push it to the very edge of his mind with the intention to forget it completely as soon as possible.

The baby archangel chose that he had been quiet and somewhat immobile long enough just as Balthazar came back, so Sam sat him down on the blanket he once more had spread there for Gabriel to play on earlier. The younger Winchester knew that he didn’t have long before the infant would demand his full attention, but he might have a few minutes left to finish the adult talk. He figured that they were about done, anyway.

“I’ll tell you, if I find anything that might help,” Sam promised, although he supposed that it was understood, anyway, “We’ll stay in contact.”

They all might have their own matters to care of, but it clearly would be better for them to remember that they all ultimately wanted the same things, too. Not to mention that whatever kind of support they could get from each other was probably about the only support they were going to get.

“Never further than a prayer away,” Balthazar said in a voice that made the statement sound like it might have been straight out of some Disney movie before he ruined it by adding, “Unless I’m taking a few more _French lessons_ in which case you can kindly go screw yourselves.”

Dean found it very hard to trust the blonde angel anyway and stupid comments like that one didn’t exactly help. Not to mention that he absolutely didn’t want to hear anything about Balthazar’s personal life or preferences.

“Let me guess, you and Gabe were best buds before the shorty skipped heaven,” the older Winchester uttered with a good portion of sarcasm in his voice. If the two angels had been anything but friends, it was because they were too much alike. Alright, there also was the possibility that they simply hadn’t known each other all too well.

“I wouldn’t say we were mates exactly,” Balthazar answered with a shrug, “His sense of humor and mine were only partially compatible.”

Of course, that didn’t mean that he hadn’t respected and liked Gabriel and it clearly didn’t mean that he didn’t have quite some affection for his babyfied brother.

Right on cue, the infant started to giggle and squeal happily as he rolled back and forth on his blanket until he bumped against the wall with a silent thud.

“I’d pay to see _you_ do _that_ ,” Dean offered, dead serious. The mental picture alone would be enough to keep him amused for some time, however.


	19. Chapter 19

**18**

 

“What was that?” Dean’s voice came through the phone Sam had wedged between his shoulder and ear.

The younger Winchester was holding the baby archangel against his other shoulder and had been rubbing his back which hadn’t left him with the free hand he would have needed to properly hold his phone with.

“One of the things Gabe learned from Mark,” Sam replied in a slightly amused tone, “He knows how to burp now.”

There were only a few little things the younger Winchester had noticed that were different about the infant’s behavior since he had returned to them, but none of those were too troublesome. Gabriel had apparently discovered that other than shuffling around on his butt rolling around on the floor was also a great way to move about. Sure, he needed to keep a closer eye on the archangel and especially to things that might suddenly be within his reach, but other than that it was just cute and funny to watch. The baby angel was also babbling a lot more than he had before and was actually imitating speech patterns in a way that nearly made it sound as if his endless strings of ‘ba’s and ‘ma’s were him giving small speeches.

“And he apparently figured out what the diapers are for,” Sam added after a moment of silence.

That was the one thing the younger Winchester could gladly do without, really. Then again, it would have freaked him out a lot more, if Gabriel had actually needed his regular diaper changes from the start. He had gotten used to changing the archangel’s clothes and bathing him a while ago, so it wasn’t all too awkward, as things were. Also, it seemed like the archangel was simply amused by his newfound skill, so Sam had some hope that he would stop it again as soon as he got bored with it.

“Oversharing much?” Dean asked with a groan, “I know it’s hard to believe for you young mommies, but people without babies might find some things disgusting instead of cute.”

The younger Winchester was pretty sure that his brother was really amused, though. He probably just liked the thought of Sam having to change dirty diapers and knowing that he had even more to tease him with now, but whatever it was would at least keep his brother – childishly – happy.

“So, did you find some time to, I don’t know, do some actual work?” the older Winchester asked casually. He and Bobby had given Sam the information Crowley had given them on the next demon – just the name of the town this time – and hearing some more details would have been nice.

The younger Winchester huffed into the phone and walked from the kitchen back to the living room where he could put Gabriel in the middle of his toys and probably get a few minutes to tell his brother about the things he had found out.

“There have been a couple of disappearances in Riverside in the past three weeks,” Sam informed his brother, always keeping one eye on the archangel on the floor, “The people came from different parts of town and don’t seem to have anything in common.”

The younger Winchester knew that he wasn’t being all too helpful, because that was nothing Dean and Bobby couldn’t have figured out within an hour of being in town, but there was one more thing he had noticed.

“Three of the reports about the victims mentioned that they were holding vigils for them in the St. John’s Lutheran Church,” he added, making clear that he thought it was an important detail, “Nothing on the others, but it’s something. I’d check it out.”

They had to start somewhere and something that might be a link between a few victims at least, seemed somewhat promising, at least.

“St. John’s Lutheran Church,” Dean repeated after his brother, probably so Bobby could start to look into it immediately, “Okay, great.”

There was a short pause and the younger Winchester was already starting to wonder, if his brother actually had a reason for not ending the call before he spoke again.

“How’re you doing?” the older Winchester asked, trying and failing not to sound worried in the least, “You are kicking Lucifer’s ass, right?”

Sam couldn’t help smiling to himself. His brother was clearly showing concern and that was something that wasn’t quite as easy for Dean as it was for most other people, at least not when it wasn’t about life and death experiences.

“Yeah, I…” Sam started, but trailed off when he looked over to the archangel who had rolled onto his back and was holding one of his two toy angels – Balthazar, the younger Winchester guessed – before his little chest and tried to roll over again with it, “I’m doing good, Dean. I _feel_ the difference again.”

He could basically hear his brother rolling his eyes at that, but he also figured that Dean was relieved to hear it. The younger Winchester sure was relieved that he could open his eyes after an intense nightmare and just feel the difference between being awake and asleep again. Real life wasn’t hazy and dull anymore and while the nightmares felt real while they lasted, they faded rather quickly as soon as he woke up.

“That’s awesome, Samantha,” Dean commented teasingly, but it wasn’t that hard to hear that he really appreciated the news. He had been very worried about his brother, after all. Sure, he couldn’t quite understand why the archangel’s presence or absence had that much of an effect on his younger brother and he wasn’t really comfortable with the fact that it obviously did, but he couldn’t be anything but relieved seeing how the situation was improving.

“Jerk,” Sam shot back automatically, but without any heat behind the word.

“You know you love me,” the older Winchester replied without missing a beat.

They both hung up feeling rather good about the conversation they had just had.

 

* * *

 

 

Midday naps were another thing Sam found he could get used to.

As it turned out, Gabriel insisted on having one after lunch and he also insisted that he wouldn’t be put down in his crib or anywhere else. The dead weight of a sleeping infant was enough to make doing anything but just lying back on the couch and waiting for him to wake up again very impractical. Snd since the younger Winchester still didn’t sleep through the nights, he could always use the rest.

Sam had spent no more than ten minutes just lying on his back with Gabriel nestled against his chest snoring softly before he had drifted off to sleep himself. What could he say? The solid weight, warmth and regular breathing of the baby were just very calming and relaxing.

“Isn’t that just precious?” Crowley commented sarcastically.

The king of hell had to move through Bobby Singer’s house with the utmost care, but he didn’t find it too hard to keep up a pretense of complete nonchalance, so the humans wouldn’t know how close they actually were to keeping him outside.

The younger Winchester’s eyes snapped open and he was fully alert and sitting upright in the matter of seconds. The baby archangel wasn’t yet ready to wake up and just made a few silent complaining noises before he snuggled up to his caretaker some more and went on sleeping.

“Don’t even think of-,” Sam started a silent threat before the demon promptly interrupted him.

“Watch the giraffe getting protective over his young. A fascinating sight, indeed,” Crowley stated in a completely serious voice. He didn’t change his position in the slightest, however. He had noticed that he wasn’t dealing with an ordinary baby immediately and appearing threatening to a supernatural being of yet unknown origin would be stupid. Oh, the king of hell put a lot of confidence in his own powers, but if he had learned one thing from dealing with the Winchesters for as long as he had, it was that being too confident around them was sure to be your downfall.

“What do you want?” Sam hissed even as he kept stroking the infant’s back soothingly in a try to keep him asleep. Hopefully this meeting wouldn’t take longer than a minute or two. Crowley probably just wanted to dump some more work on Bobby and that couldn’t take too long.

“Oh, I just wanted to see why Bobby dearest is on a hunt with your moronic brother and where you disappeared to,” the king of hell replied with a casual shrug, “I think I know the answers to both questions, already.”

It couldn’t hurt to keep a close eye at the whereabouts of the hunters he was currently using to do his dirty work for him, especially when they were of the kind that would turn on him without a second thought, even if that would damn one of them to an afterlife spent in hell.

“Great, so you can just get lost again,” Sam stated matter-of-factly and cursed internally when Gabriel huffed out a deep breath, yawned and opened his eyes. He really didn’t want the baby to freak out and destroy Bobby’s house along with Crowley. Mainly Bobby’s house, though.

“I think I just came up with a few more things I want to know,” the king of hell replied rather predictably, “Why did you try to hide this from me? What exactly is that little bugger? And most importantly, how did you manage to get your figure back so quickly?”

The younger Winchester didn’t appreciate the stupid jokes his brother threw his way ever so often, but he really hated them when they came from a demon like Crowley. For a moment, he actually wished that Gabriel would take one good look at their visitor and turn him to ashes.

It was good to know that Crowley was unable to figure out what the littlest archangel was for himself, though. That meant that Castiel had been right when he had said that Gabriel was concealing his true self pretty well and that could only count as a good thing.

“You don’t really expect me to answer those questions,” Sam stated with a snort. Like he’d give Crowley any information about anything that wasn’t strictly necessary for him to know. Hell, he probably wouldn’t give the demon information he really needed to have unless he was forced to!

Gabriel finally seemed to notice that there was someone else in the room with them. He leaned his head against his caretaker’s shoulder and looked over to the demon, scrunching up his face for a few moments before he relaxed again. Sam wasn’t quite sure what the baby had seen exactly, but he must have deemed Crowley nonthreatening enough for some reason. The younger Winchester really would have liked to know how the infant had come to that conclusion.

“You surely don’t expect me to accept that answer,” the king of hell shot back, “But of course, I can just go and ask around until I get the information I want and everybody knows that you have a special baby of some sort with you.”

Giving people options that weren’t really options at all must have been something all the evil sons of bitches were well versed in. Maybe they had all taken the same basic class in demon school or something like that.

“Angel,” Sam pressed through gritted teeth which caused Gabriel to stroke his hair in an imitation of what the tall human did to him when he got annoyed, “He’s a baby angel.”

If he had to give Crowley some information that didn’t mean that he had to give him all the information they had, especially not while there was a chance that the demon would be satisfied with less than the entire truth.

“You’ll have to try harder, if you want to pull my leg,” the demon replied in an annoyed tone “Angels don’t work that way!”

Hunters just never knew how to pick their fights. They were always just fighting everything and anything no matter if they were in over their heads or if it was even necessary. This far, Crowley’s interest was purely out of educational reasons. He had seen many things in his life and when he came across one he didn’t know, he simply wanted to close the gap in his education.

“An angel who got turned into a baby, alright?” Sam admitted.

Gabriel just kept looking between the two adults, as if he still wasn’t sure what to make of the situation. His human caretaker wasn’t helping him with figuring it out, either. The signals he got weren’t clear by any means.

“Someone I know?” the king of hell asked casually. That explanation at least made sense, so the demon chose to take it. He wasn’t all too sure what to make of it yet, but he was sure that he would come up with something, eventually.

“Not that I know of,” the younger Winchester shrugged.

The baby archangel finally chose to fix his big golden eyes on the demon’s – as he saw them – black ones and made a few questioning noises, as if he expected the king of hell to explain himself.

“Fair enough,” Crowley decided and stepped forward to pat the infant’s head for a moment under the very critical stares of the younger Winchester. Actually, the human would probably have done everything to prevent him from ever touching the angel, if he had gotten a chance to.

Gabriel simply squealed and bounced on his caretaker’s arm, smiling at the demon.

The king of hell threw the younger Winchester a very priggish look before he tapped the angel’s nose and disappeared.

Sam couldn’t help staring at the little archangel incredulously. Okay, Crowley hadn’t done anything to appear as a threat in the baby’s eyes, but the human would have thought that the archangel would know better.

“Gabe, we really need to talk about the meaning of bad company.”


	20. Chapter 20

**19**

 

“Sheriff Mills,” Sam greeted the woman standing at Bobby’s front door in a surprised tone. When thinking of unexpected visitors, the younger Winchester had been rather pessimistic and had thought of Crowley – yet again – or possibly Raphael or one of his goons. Of course, neither of those options would have knocked.

Jody was no less surprised by encountering the younger Winchester instead of Bobby Singer, but what definitely surprised her most was the baby looking back at her with curious golden brown eyes.

“I get the feeling I should just arrest you,” Jody sighed and rubbed her temple. She wasn’t completely serious about it, but she couldn’t quite believe that there was nothing fishy about the scene in front of her, either. Actually, she was very sure that she had just more or less solved one of her previously unsolved cases.

Sam chuckled a little awkwardly and stepped aside to let her into the house.

“He hasn’t been kidnapped or anything like that,” the younger Winchester quickly pointed out when the sheriff still looked at him rather suspiciously after they had reached the kitchen.

“I’ve actually been thinking about a certain shopkeeper asking if the cute, overgrown guy with the fabulous hair and his little son were okay,” Jody replied with a meaningful look.

Sam couldn’t help looking a little guilty at that, but he could keep himself from saying that she couldn’t arrest him for that since it had been Gabriel’s doing. He really wasn’t ready to open that can of worms!

“To make a long story very short, it was a demon,” the younger Winchester answered the implied question with a half-truth they both should be able to live with quite well. It wasn’t like there wasn’t some truth in that statement, anyway. Gabriel would have never destroyed that store, if it hadn’t been for that stupid demon. Besides, Sheriff Mills would probably sleep better thinking that the culprit had been dealt with, already.

“Thank God the local teenagers don’t know that that actually doesn’t make a half bad excuse,” Jody retorted slightly jokingly. She wasn’t quite sure if she could ever be a hundred percent sure that something was completely impossible after everything she had seen and she hadn’t even seen all too much, yet.

Sam huffed out a laugh which made Gabriel bounce on his arm enthusiastically. The littlest archangel then decided to grab his caretaker’s nose to get his full attention and let loose a string of sounds that nearly gave the impression that he was actually giving a rather passionate speech about something. That could only mean one thing, really.

The younger Winchester went over to the fridge and got a container of banana pudding and a spoon. There probably wasn’t a single piece of an actual banana in banana pudding, not to mention all the sugar, artificial colors, sweeteners and God knew what else, but it still was the closest to something somewhat healthy he had managed to get into the archangel. He vowed to give a healthy diet another shot as soon as Gabriel had a few teeth. There would be more options to choose from once that happened, after all.

Sheriff Mills watched the interaction between the tall man and the baby with a fond but rather melancholic smile. Actually, she had come to get an answer to one question that had come up in the past few days, but now she found that she had several more. Well, she had already gotten one answered.

“Just tell me that he’s not part of a case,” Jody said after a few moments of watching the infant chasing the spoon with his mouth as soon as it left the pudding container. The thought that the cute little baby might be hunted by some sort of monster, or – even worse – might be a monster himself was enough to make her cringe inwardly.

“Uh… let’s just say Gabe’s a friend who isn’t completely himself right now,” Sam replied evasively. Somehow saying it like that didn’t feel right, though. The younger Winchester actually liked to think that Gabriel might be more like himself than he had ever been while he had been keeping up his trickster persona.

It was good that the younger Winchester had mentioned the infant’s name, otherwise Jody would have had to ask if he was holding his own brother. It clearly couldn’t have been Bobby, because she knew for a fact that the older hunter’s eyes were blue.

“The things you guys deal with,” the sheriff stated, shaking her head.

Sam couldn’t have agreed more as he continued to feed Gabriel his third pudding of the day. The archangel clearly didn’t know what moderation meant, but that wasn’t a new character trait for him at all.

“Bobby will be gone for another two or three days, by the way,” the younger Winchester pointed out after a moment of silence. He was sure that Jody hadn’t come to see him, so she might want to know, after all.

The two or three days might easily become more like a week, if Crowley decided to send him and Dean on another hunt straight away. Neither of them was happy about jumping when the demon told them to of course, but those demons the king of hell pointed out to them were quite obviously trying to work some serious black magic, so they didn’t have much of a choice but to prevent them from succeeding, even if Crowley hadn’t had that damned contract on Bobby’s soul. After long hours of research – mostly when Gabriel was sleeping or playing by himself – Sam thought that he had a pretty good idea what the ritual was meant to do once it was finished and that gave them even more of a reason to stop them.

“Oh, I guess you are the go-to guy then,” Jody replied. Sure, she had thought she would speak to Bobby Singer, but it didn’t matter too much which one of the hunters she spoke to for the information she needed.

The younger Winchester finished feeding the infant and put the empty container into the sink as he got a wet rag to clean Gabriel’s face with. He wasn’t quite sure if he was the go-to guy for anything much that wasn’t limited to childcare and simple research as things were, but he didn’t know what Sheriff Mills wanted of him yet, so maybe one of those two things were exactly what she needed. He’d be damned, if it was about anything connected to childcare, though.

“Let’s say there was a ghost in a house that’s going to be demolished,” Jody started once Sam was sitting across from her again, “What’s most likely to happen?”

It felt quite surreal to both adults to have a discussion like that with an infant currently amusing himself by tearing a napkin into little pieces in the younger Winchester’s lap.

“Depends on the ghost, but I’d say the demolition crew will be in trouble,” Sam answered and took a piece of the napkin away from Gabriel before he could put it into his mouth. Of course, the ghost might also lay low for a while and unleash hell on the owners of the new building, or the people building the new house. “What’s for sure is that the ghost won’t simply go away.”

With as little information as the sheriff had given him, Sam thought that being a little pessimistic wasn’t out of place. A simple death echo might actually be snapped out of it and simply pass on to the afterlife by having the place where the person was killed taken away from under their feet – possible, but not guaranteed – but any spirit with actual harmful intentions wouldn’t be stopped as easily as that.

“Alright, if I’m not wrong the ghost we’re talking about has killed before,” Jody added a little more information and then threw a doubtful look toward the baby before she got a folder out of her bag and put it on the table without opening it.

The younger Winchester got the hint and picked up the baby and the file and led the sheriff over to the living room where he could put Gabriel on his blanket and take a look at the report Jody had brought with her without risking the archangel getting glimpses of things he really shouldn’t have to see.

Sam quickly looked through the papers to get a general idea of the situation. Apparently, the house the sheriff was talking about was at the outskirts of town and had been scheduled for demolition after it had fallen to the community when no living heirs came to claim it for a longer period of time. The younger Winchester wasn’t too surprised that nobody was too keen on possessing a home the last three owners had left in body bags, however. That probably was also the reason why it was meant to be torn down, even though it was a rather nice looking building.

“It does look suspicious, doesn’t it?” Jody asked after giving Sam some time to look at the information. Not too long ago she wouldn’t have paid any attention to the rumors about a ghost in the house, but now that she knew that it was technically possible she found it harder to believe that the untimely deaths of three people were a coincidence than she found it to believe that a supernatural being might be behind it.

The younger Winchester nodded thoughtfully, looking at the profile of a fourth person Jody had put into the file. It wasn’t hard to guess that she thought that the original owner of the place might be the ghost haunting it. He was the only one who had committed suicide, apparently after it had become clear that he couldn’t pay the mortgage anymore.

“Peter Logan, huh?” Sam stated, looking at the page to see if there was any information about where he had been buried, “Sounds like a salt and burn to me.”

He really had forgotten that Sheriff Mills was rather new to all this after seeing the information she had gathered and was only reminded of the fact when she gave him a somewhat disturbed look.

“Salting and burning the body is how you send earthbound spirits on their way to whatever afterlife there is for them,” the younger Winchester added quickly and closed the file. Gabriel had started to grow tired of rolling around on his own and was making complaining noises, so the tall human picked him up again.

“So, I… get some salt and gasoline and that’s the end of it?” Jody asked. She couldn’t help frowning at what she had just had to say for the first time in her life, though. Knowing that some incidents might be caused by supernatural beings and actually talking about going up against one were two very different things.

“Should be,” Sam confirmed, carefully bouncing the angelic infant on his knee to keep him happy. He probably wouldn’t have had to be half as careful with the baby as he was, but it was too easy to forget that the tiny body belonged to a damn powerful being.

“Just… look… I’m not comfortable with letting you-,“ the younger Winchester started to say before the sheriff interrupted him.

“Is this about me being a woman?” Jody asked with a raised eyebrow, “’Cause I’ve been working in a men’s domain for a long time and I’m just as capable as-“

Sam couldn’t help laughing. He wasn’t quite sure why this struck him as quiet as funny as it did, but it probably had something to do with how normal an argument about gender equality was as compared to most things he had had to deal with lately. He knew he probably shouldn’t have allowed himself to actually laugh out loud, but he couldn’t stop it, all the same. The archangel, always happy to hear his caretaker express amusement, joined him, giggling madly.

“I’m sorry, but it’s nothing to do with gender, I promise,” the younger Winchester replied seriously as soon as Jody shot him a very annoyed look, “Two of the best hunters I’ve ever known were women.”

He didn’t allow himself to linger on that thought, because it was sure to make him rather melancholic and all the other things the archangel didn’t appreciate.

“It’s more that you’re a rookie in these things,” Sam explained. He had a feeling that Bobby would tear him a new one for allowing Sheriff Mills to go and get herself in danger like that, too. Then again, Dean was very likely to tear him a new one for going on the hunt himself, not to mention the littlest angel who didn’t ever want to let him out of his sight these days. The younger Winchester always had to make sure that Gabriel was fast asleep before he even went to take a quick shower, otherwise the infant would start to cry. They had managed to give him serious abandonment issues, indeed! Sam just hoped that that would get better with time when the baby realized that nobody was even thinking about giving him away again.

“The demolition crew starts their work in two days,” Jody pointed out, “And I think I can handle digging up a grave.”

She probably should have been put off more by the thought of committing a crime, but it wasn’t like one act of seemingly random vandalism would cause too much chaos and compared to the good it was meant to do, she found it was justifiable.

“And then you’ll arrest the ghost when he shows up to keep you from finishing the task?” the younger Winchester asked sarcastically and immediately regretted it when he saw the hard stare the sheriff gave him for the comment, “Okay, just saying you’d really need some backup there, but…”

Sam indicated the baby on his knee with a motion of his head. He knew that he had to come up with some solution for the problem quickly, though. He didn’t know Jody all too well, but he was convinced that she would just go and try to do this on her own anyway, if he didn’t give her a better option.

Too bad that calling a babysitter service was out of the question…


	21. Chapter 21

**20**

 

Sheriff Jody Mills couldn’t help thinking that she might find it easier to actually commit the crime herself than to sit and watch while somebody else was doing it. She had had to admit that the younger Winchester had made a good point when he had said that he could dig up the grave much quicker than she would be able to. Practice would do that to someone.

So she was sitting in the car with the sleeping baby in his car seat next to her and was straining her eyes to see the progress Sam was making. It should have made her feel more comfortable to know that no one who had no reason to actually look for a disturbance on the graveyard would notice that someone was there, but being unable to clearly make out what was happening by the gravesite made her a little nervous, too.

Jody sighed and studied the infant’s sleeping face instead. It had struck her as a little strange that the younger Winchester had insisted with as much vehemence as he had that they couldn’t do anything before Gabriel was fast asleep. She was quite sure that she would have been able to handle the baby just fine, even if he had been awake, but then again she was also sure that there was something about the infant that Sam wasn’t sharing with her.

Actually, a part of her didn’t want to know more than was absolutely necessary, anyway. She was already unable to look at some things the same with what little knowledge she had of all the things Bobby Singer and the other men were dealing with day in day out. Of course, being curious and wanting to investigate was a part of her job description and why she had wanted to join the police force in the first place, though.

Sheriff Mills was barely able to see the tall man and the shovel moving anymore and she was rather sure that she wouldn’t have been able to pick up the difference between the normal digging motions and anything else, but she appeased the nagging feeling at the back of her mind with knowing that any sort of fight – and the younger Winchester would surely put up a fight, if it came to it – was bound to make noise and she would hear that.

Just like she could hear the silent noises that accompanied the baby’s sleep becoming lighter and announcing that he might wake up soon. Sam had instructed her to try everything to keep him asleep for as long as he was gone – sure, nothing suspicious about that – so she reached over and gently rocked the car seat in a try to lull the infant back into a deeper sleep. It seemed to work until she carefully stroked the boy’s hair which made him blink awake in record speed.

“Shh, he’ll be back soon,” Jody whispered in a reassuring tone as Gabriel began to look around, clearly searching for his caretaker. The woman quickly freed the infant from his car seat and bounced him against her shoulder when he began to make serious complaining noises.

“You probably can’t see that, but he’s just over there,” she continued to speak in a soft tone that seemed to calm the infant down a little.

The younger Winchester clearly had been overreacting when he had taken all the precautions against Gabriel noticing his absence. She was perfectly capable of keeping the baby happy enough. At least, that was what Sheriff Mills thought right up to the second when she was suddenly holding nothing but air.

 

* * *

 

 

Alright, Sam wasn’t supposed to do this sort of thing, but he had had that discussion with himself earlier and really helping Sheriff Mills out was the only right thing to do.

He had dug up enough graves in his life that he was sure this shouldn’t take him much longer than an hour, especially since he seemed to be lucky and the ground was soft enough to allow quick progress. He just hoped that his luck would last and the ghost wouldn’t show up before he was done with the digging which wouldn’t take that much longer.

The younger Winchester had kept all his senses on high alert to make sure that the spirit couldn’t get the drop on him, so he nearly jumped out of his skin when a figure appeared by the edge of the grave.

It only took him a moment to realize that the figure was much too small for a ghost, however. The somewhat reprimanding, but completely nonthreatening squealing coming from the infant helped the human’s heartbeat to return to normal quickly, too.

“You totally couldn’t sleep another ten minutes, could you?” the younger Winchester sighed which caused Gabriel to reply with a string of babbled sounds that probably meant something like ‘No, no, I am mad at _you_ , human! You dumped me on some woman _again_!’.

The shovel made contact with wood just as the adult and the infant were having their sort of conversation, so the younger Winchester could pry the lid of the coffin open, climb out of the grave and pick Gabriel up before Jody even came running his way.

“You’re in trouble now, young man,” Sam told the baby seriously, even as he threw the salt over the corpse and followed it up with lighter fluid.

They really had something to explain to Sheriff Mills who looked nothing short of shocked and the younger Winchester really would have preferred not having to explain angels to her.

“What the hell just happened?” Jody asked more than a little flabbergasted, staring at the baby contently snuggling against the tall man’s chest.

The evening they had gone out to kill a ghost had just turned even more surreal and she really would have liked to know how that was even possible!

A sudden change in temperature prevented the younger Winchester from giving any sort of answer as he struggled to get his lighter from his pocket and get a flame going before the ghost got a chance to prove why exactly none of them should have been there under the circumstances, in the first place.

He cursed loudly when all he managed to do was drop the lighter and the ghost, now showing himself clearly as a middle aged man with the marks left from hanging himself around his neck, flicked his wrist and sent Jody flying.

Sam had tightened his grip on Gabriel and had turned away from the ghost and crouched down to better protect the infant with his own body instinctively and was fairly surprised when nothing happened to them. He probably shouldn’t have been, considering who he had cradled against his chest, though.

“Fire, fire,” the younger Winchester muttered under his breath as he scrambled to find his lighter and just end this quickly before either the ghost or Gabriel felt forced to take more drastic measures. He only wanted to set that stupid grave on fire! How hard could that be?

Sam hadn’t even finished his thought when orange flames suddenly licked out of the grave and the ghost disappeared with a drawn out screech.

“Don’t think that means you’re not in trouble anymore,” the tall human told the littlest archangel with a short, somewhat amused snort.

The infant just leaned his head against his caretaker’s shoulder, huffing out a deep breath. There was no place for doubt about the fact that Gabriel had just set fire to the corpse in the younger Winchester’s mind, however.

“A hunter, a sheriff and a baby went to the graveyard in the middle of the night,” Jody stated, obviously a little lightheaded after the fall she had taken, “That should be the start of a bad joke, not of a horror story.”

Sam nodded and handed the shovel over to the sheriff so she could support herself on it a little while they were walking back to the car. It wasn’t that hard to see that the woman felt a little weak to the knees, not that the younger Winchester could have blamed her for that.

“Are you okay?” Sam asked once they were all seated in the car. Gabriel didn’t appreciate being banned to his car seat on the backseat when his caretaker was sitting in the front, but he kept the complaining to silent noises and the occasional whimper. The younger Winchester couldn’t have done anything about it, anyway. He wouldn’t let Jody drive before he knew for sure that being thrown to the ground had only momentarily dazed her and nothing more.

“Just peachy,” Sheriff Mills replied. Sure, she would have a few minor bruises and probably a headache later on, but thinking of what had just happened, it could have been much worse. She also was sure that there hadn’t been any real damage done. “The funny thing is, I thought I saw a baby disappear on me even before that ghost threw me around.”

It figured that that wasn’t something you forgot easily. The younger Winchester had just hoped that it might take her a little longer to remember why she had been directly in the graveyard in the first place.

“I guess that means you want the longer version of the story,” Sam stated, “But I think we’ll need coffee for that.”

 

* * *

 

 

“Not just an angel, but _the_ archangel Gabriel,” Jody repeated after the younger Winchester, looking at the infant who was sleeping on a quickly thrown together heap of blankets on the ground with his little fist in his mouth while the pacifier was lying abandoned next to him, “That’s something new.”

With two aspirin and a cup of coffee in her system, she actually felt as good as new and able to take all this new information in again. The thought that it would be insanely easy for the younger Winchester to pull her leg with anything he could think of telling her just for shits and giggles had crossed her mind for a moment, but she liked to think that she was pretty good at reading people in general and the tall man seemed dead serious about what he was telling her.

“And he… came back from the dead as a baby,” Jody summed up the rest of the story, taking another sip of her coffee to give herself a moment to think, “Who says that that’s not how actual resurrection works?”

Both adults didn’t feel comfortable with the topic, thinking of what had happened with the sheriff’s family during the events of the Apocalypse, but they were both quite determined to discuss it, anyway.

“I’m positive it doesn’t,” the younger Winchester replied curtly to get that part of the talk over with as quickly as possible. He didn’t think that Jody would have appreciated to hear much more about that, anyway.

“Besides, we know from absolutely credible sources that angels aren’t meant to start their lives as babies,” he added after a short moment of silence, “God creates them as adults.”

The sheriff considered the new information for a few long moments. She actually was a little curious what those absolutely credible sources were, but she had started to doubt that she could take in much more a while ago, so she didn’t ask.

“That sounds a little sad to me,” Jody commented thoughtfully, “No childhood at all…”

Sam had to say that he agreed with her on that. He and Dean hadn’t had much of a childhood either and that was something the younger Winchester often wished would have been different, even if they would have ended up being hunters eventually, anyway.

“It’s too bad you can’t just ask God why he did it,” Sheriff Mills shrugged and stood up, getting ready to leave. It was late and they all could use the rest.

“Yeah, too bad he doesn’t talk to any…” the younger Winchester trailed off when an idea suddenly hit him and he exclaimed a very sudden, “You’re brilliant!”

Jody blinked a couple of times. “It never occurred to you to pray to Him asking for answers?”

Once again, she couldn’t quite believe the topic she was just having a serious talk about, but considering se had held the archangel Gabriel in her arms earlier, talking about God as an actual, existing person made more sense than ever before.

“Well, no, ‘cause He wouldn’t answer me, anyway,” Sam explained, “But there is someone He talks to and that person should be much easier to get through to.”

The hunter and the sheriff said their goodbyes soon afterward. Jody hadn’t asked for a more in-depth explanation and the younger Winchester hadn’t offered one.

With everything that had been going on ever since he and Gabriel had come back from the dead, Sam wasn’t too disappointed with himself for not thinking of Joshua earlier. The angel had seemed willing enough to at least speak to them the last time they had needed him, so it was worth a shot in any case, however.

The younger Winchester picked the baby archangel up from his makeshift bed and moved them both upstairs to their actual beds without waking the infant. If God had lost as much as a word about any of this to anyone, it would have been Joshua most surely and maybe the angel would actually be able to enlighten them a little.

Sam pointedly ignored how his chest was tightening at the thought of losing Gabriel, yet again. He wasn’t going to lose the archangel. He was going to restore things to the state they were supposed to be! Doing anything to prevent that from happening would be very selfish and definitely not what his little friend deserved.

Once he had made sure that Gabriel was comfortable in his crib, the younger Winchester folded his hands a little awkwardly.

“Uh, Cas, this isn’t an emergency or anything, but there’s something I’d like to discuss with you, so whenever you’ve got a minute it would be great if you just popped in,” Sam said, rather unsure if what he had just done could even count as a prayer in the loosest sense of the word, so he added a quick, “Amen.”

When nothing happened for a few minutes the younger Winchester decided that their angelic friend was probably busy and retired for the night, too. It wasn’t like Castiel would have any qualms about simply waking him up, anyway.


	22. Chapter 22

**21**

 

Sam woke up early the next morning. He couldn’t quite remember what he had dreamed about, but it had left a vague bad feeling behind. He probably shouldn’t have been as happy about that as he was, but by his standards, a vague bad feeling was like winning the jackpot. Compared to waking up covered in cold sweat with the one or another different picture of Lucifer etched into his mind, anyway.

The younger Winchester was a little surprised that Gabriel was still fast asleep in his crib. Usually, the baby always seemed to wake up a little while before he did, but a quick look at the time revealed that Sam had woken up nearly half an hour before their normal time.

That should give him the chance to take the shower he had skipped the other day, the younger Winchester figured as he tried to get out of the bed as silently as possible. He left the door slightly ajar, so he would hear if the archangel woke up and started to cry, though.

Sam stripped quickly and got into the shower before he even fully adjusted the water temperature. Chances were he didn’t have that much time here and he’d have really liked to get completely clean before he had to throw his clothes back on and hurry to show Gabriel that he had not abandoned him.

The younger Winchester couldn’t help wondering if Gabriel would feel any sort of attachment toward him once he was an adult again. Thinking that he might still be somewhat clingy was making him feel a little uncomfortable, but thinking that he might somehow forget everything about the bond they clearly had right now was downright painful.

Sam didn’t get to contemplate the matter any further, however.

He yelped in surprise and nearly lost his footing when he suddenly had a very sleepy, slightly disgruntled and fully dressed baby tightly pressed against his shoulder. If he hadn’t known better he would have had to assume that Gabriel was trying to kill him!

The younger Winchester tried really hard to completely ignore that he was buck naked, because allowing himself to consider that would have made him wish for a fall that would have cracked his skull.

Of course, Gabriel was only a baby who had woken up to find his caretaker gone and had decided to go and find him, so the situation was as innocent as it could ever be, but the fact that Sam knew the archangel’s adult self made it more uncomfortable than it would have had to be, anyway. This was something the younger Winchester hoped Gabriel wouldn’t remember once he was grown up again!

The baby only seemed to realize that he had landed under the spray of the shower and was getting soaking wet himself a few moments later. He started with a low wail - mostly to get the human’s attention - and started to squirm in a try to get away from the water that was beating against his back in a way he didn’t like.

Sam moved them both out of the shower the very second he managed to make his legs work.

“That’s what you get for invading my privacy and not checking where you’re going to,” the younger Winchester muttered as he tried to wrap a towel around his waist without letting go of the archangel. He would have had to set the baby down at the rug on the floor otherwise and he absolutely wasn’t going to give the archangel an even better view, even if there was nothing sexual about the situation at all, it still felt all too embarrassing.

Gabriel just looked at him with big eyes and planted a very wet kiss against his caretaker’s cheek.

“I’m not telling uncle Dean, if you don’t tell him, either,” Sam chuckled once the first embarrassment had worn off and he could see the humorous side of the story. It also helped that the archangel’s eyes were firmly fixed on his face as the baby grabbed his wet hair and cuddled against his shoulder some more.

Once the younger Winchester had managed to secure the towel around his waist, he decided to take the opportunity and run a bath for the infant while they were both in the bathroom, already. As things were Gabriel was only wet but couldn’t count as clean and he had to undress him, anyway. Might as well just give him a proper bath!

“Those are really absorbent,” Sam commented when he took the soaking wet diapers off the baby and tossed them into the trashcan. There was some truth in advertising, after all.

The younger Winchester smiled to himself when he remembered a little something. He had wanted to give Gabriel a real bubble bath ever since they had bought the bath additive, but other things had come up all the time.

The wondrous expression on the infant’s face when he made first contact with the bubbles was enough to make Sam forget about the fact that he had been startled and embarrassed earlier and was still only dressed in a towel. There was something about the way the baby’s eyes lit up and he made happy sounds that just made everything else escape the human’s mind for a few moments.

“Wish we had gotten you a few bath toys,” the younger Winchester mumbled as he carefully washed Gabriel’s fine hair. The mental picture of the archangel with a couple of rubber ducks floating around him made the tall human smile again. He’d have to make that happen someday soon. He was sure that his little charge would love it.

Gabriel tilted his head in a way that reminded Sam of Castiel and fixed his caretaker with a searching stare before he splashed around in the water excitedly and began to babble enthusiastically.

“Yeah?” the younger Winchester asked in an amused tone when the infant made a pause in his gibbering, “I’m sure you just had a great idea, Gabe.”

The archangel grinned widely and before Sam knew what had happened a couple of rubber ducks that looked eerily like the ones the human had pictured before were floating around in the tub. A great idea, indeed. Too bad that he had stolen it straight from the younger Winchester’s head.

Sam swallowed audibly. The bathroom wasn’t any colder than before he was sure, but he felt a chill creeping over his skin, anyway. He couldn’t help but feel curious about what had just happened, though.

“Okay, this is probably a bad idea,” the younger Winchester mumbled to himself before he gently stroked Gabriel’s cheek to make the baby look back at him, “Think you can pick up on what I’m thinking?”

Sam had of course taken a moment to figure out something that really couldn’t do any harm for the experiment before he challenged the infant to conjure up another thing. There wasn’t that much that could go wrong with the baby blue, hooded towel he was thinking of, he supposed.

The younger Winchester wasn’t quite sure if he was relieved or a little disappointed when nothing happened, but watching Gabriel play with his new rubber ducks happily took his mind off everything else, anyway.

When the water was getting too cold Sam lifted the infant archangel from the bathtub. To his credit, he wasn’t all too startled when he was suddenly holding the baby blue, hooded towel he could wrap him up in, too.

“Alright, you do know what ‘good timing’ means,” the tall human concluded as he pulled the hood over his little charge’s head and rubbed him dry.

They both were squeaky-clean, mostly dry and ready to get dressed for the day, but unfortunately not everyone in the archangel’s family had the same sense for timing the infant had.

“Hello Sam,” Castiel stated stoically and nearly made the younger Winchester yelp in surprise for the second time that morning.

Sure, he had prayed for the angel to come and see him so they could discuss an idea the human had had, but he hadn’t expected to be dressed in only a towel with an equally undressed Gabriel in his arms when that happened!

“I… need to get dressed,” Sam stated rather lamely while Castiel continued to stare at him and the happily gurgling bundle of archangel he was holding.

“Yes,” the angel simply replied, but changed nothing about his posture or expression while he did.

The younger Winchester sighed and got ready to leave the bathroom when a thought occurred to him. He had had enough of Gabriel and Castiel or anyone else seeing him in any state of undress for the day, so he’d better leave the archangel with his brother while he found something to wear.

“Just hold him for a minute,” he requested of the adult angel and handed the infant over without waiting for an answer, half expecting Gabriel to put up a fight or complain loudly immediately, but the baby remained silent. Sam vowed to just throw some clothes on quickly, anyway. He didn’t want to subject poor Castiel to one of his baby brother’s moods. The angel was still so easily perplexed by normal and somewhat rational adult behavior, so it didn’t seem right to let him deal with an infant on his own.

Castiel just kept standing stiffly, holding Gabriel in the exact way the younger Winchester had handed him to him, for a few seconds. The infant didn’t appreciate that all too much and started to squirm and wiggle, forcing his big brother to get a tighter grip and hold him a little closer.

The two angels tilted their heads at nearly the same moment. The baby squealed happily and reached for Castiel’s face with his tiny arms, throwing the towel off his head and shoulders with the motion. The dark-haired angel brought his little brother closer to himself and allowed him to grope his ears and nose to his heart’s content. He did not fully understand why Gabriel’s current physique was having such an effect on the younger Winchester’s and Balthazar’s behavior, but he had to say that he found it quite endearing himself.

Some of Jimmy’s memories supplied Castiel with the understanding that people often liked to make nonsensical noises when they were around infants, so the angel made a few – rather awkward – cooing noises which seemed to amuse his baby brother to no end.

Castiel tilted his head again in wonder and smiled slightly.

Sam hadn’t been gone for more than five minutes when he returned with a new diaper, a simple green shirt and the blue overalls saying ‘sweet little angel’ to dress Gabriel with. Apparently, the diaper came a little too late, however.

“It seems Gabriel discovered a new way of leaking,” Castiel commented completely nonplussed as he simply continued to hold the baby, even as he was peeing on the adult angel’s shoes, “I find it to be more unpleasant than the other one.”

In all honesty, the younger Winchester wasn’t even trying not to laugh at that. It would have been a fruitless attempt, anyway.

“He… he thinks it’s funny, I think,” Sam managed to explain once he had composed himself enough to talk. At least, he hadn’t been able to discover any sort of correlation between the amount of liquid Gabriel got into his system and the amount going out. Apparently, the baby really only thought that peeing was an amusing pastime.

“My brother’s sense of humor has always been perplexing at the best of times,” Castiel replied nonchalantly as he handed Gabriel back to the tall human and cleaned himself up with a thought.

It didn’t take the younger Winchester long to get the archangel fully dressed, so the three of them could make their way to Bobby’s living room. Sam considered asking Castiel not to mention anything that had happened before they had been downstairs to Dean or anybody else, but he figured that the angel wouldn’t have a reason to do that, anyway. He might only confuse the dark-haired angel with the request, really.

“You wished to speak to me,” Castiel prompted just as Sam put Gabriel in the middle of his toy blocks.

The younger Winchester nodded and took a seat across from the angel.

“Do you think that God might still be speaking to Joshua?” he asked, throwing a side glance toward the littlest archangel to make sure he had everything he needed.

Castiel seemed to consider the question very carefully for a few long moments before he inclined his head slightly.

“It is possible,” the angel replied slowly. Nobody but Joshua and God knew for sure, of course. There was a chance that their father wouldn’t suddenly stop speaking to the one angel He had stayed in contact with even after He had abandoned the rest of them, though.

“He should know something more about Gabriel’s situation then,” Sam assumed.

“Possibly,” Castiel answered, “But to my knowledge Joshua has not been speaking to any other angel ever since the conflict between Raphael and myself started.”

Joshua had not been very social to begin with, but he had completely isolated himself after the Apocalypse had been stopped and it had become clear that the civil war in heaven couldn’t be averted. Castiel could understand his brother, too. If he had the choice he might have preferred to simply stay out of all of this, as well. He might have stayed on Earth and learned more of the human things he didn’t yet understand and he might have stayed close to the Winchesters, simply because they were his friends. As things were, many people were depending on him and he could not flee from the responsibility, however.

“There’s got to be something we can do to make him talk to us,” the younger Winchester stated thoughtfully. The topic was not necessarily connected to the conflict between the angels, after all. Maybe Joshua would be willing to speak to people just searching for information and not trying to make him join their side. Sam supposed that that was the main reason why the angel had chosen to become a hermit, anyway.

“I suppose you can send him an invitation,” the angel pondered, “But I have to warn you that we do not know for sure that Joshua does not have a preferred side in this.”

The younger Winchester nodded slightly. It was a risk they would have to take, if they wanted to try and talk to the keeper of the garden.

“Alright, thanks Cas,” Sam replied with a small, grateful smile, “I’d better talk to Bobby and Dean before we do anything, but I think it’d be worth a shot.”

He had a good chance that one or both of them would deem him worth a shot – in the more literal sense – if he did anything without giving them the chance to voice their opinion first, after all.


	23. Chapter 23

**22**

 

“What exactly would an _invitation_ entail?” Dean asked, leaning against the wall of Bobby’s kitchen, beer in hand.

The two hunters had returned from their latest demon hunt a little while ago and Sam had decided to give them the time to unload their equipment and get somewhat comfortable before he told them about the possibility to learn more about Gabriel’s situation he had come up with.

At least, they didn’t have to discuss any of the other things that had happened in the past few days, because Sam had shared those with his brother over the phone, already. His and Jody’s nightly adventure had mostly amused Dean, even though he had felt entitled to tell his younger brother exactly how stupid he thought the two of them had been. The fact that Crowley now had some basic knowledge about Gabriel had forced a harsher reaction from the older Winchester. His favorite curse – ‘Son of a bitch!’ – had been used a lot during that conversation. They hadn’t been able to answer the question why the hell the littlest archangel hadn’t deemed the king of hell smite-worthy during that talk, but now that the younger Winchester knew that Gabriel could read his thoughts to some extent he had a pretty good idea about what might have happened, after all. Not to mention that the infant had shown that he was very susceptible to his caretaker’s emotions before. To make it short, the younger Winchester figured that Gabriel simply hadn’t freaked out because Sam hadn’t felt particularly threatened or scared. That – of course – didn’t explain why the archangel had gotten rather friendly with the demon at the end of their meeting. He couldn’t have picked up that vibe from Sam!

“According to Cas there’s a ritual that would let Joshua know that we want to speak to him,” the younger Winchester explained, “But of course it would also let him know where to find us.”

There was silence between them until Gabriel hit the tabletop repeatedly and let loose a string of the nonsensical syllables he had started to put together not too long ago. Sam was pretty sure that the archangel was only playing pretend to join the conversation and didn’t actually try to communicate any important thoughts, but he stroked over the infant’s head encouragingly, anyway.

“That sounds very promising,” Dean replied doubtfully, but he had to admit that the idea sounded quite good. He’d be the first to jump at the possibility to actually get Gabriel out of the diapers and back into a form where he’d be allowed to yell at him and kick his ass for the things he had made them go through without abusing a baby. Except for the part where they would call an angel who might as well be an enemy of Castiel right now right to them, that was.

The younger Winchester shrugged a little helplessly. It was the best option he had been able to come up with.

“We have spoken to him before and he seemed trustworthy,” Sam stated, but he wasn’t quite sure what they were meant to do in this case, either. He knew that his brain told him that this was a good option, but his feelings told him not to take any risks. He had his little archangel to care for and he couldn’t put the baby in danger like that! At the same time he was meant to make sure that Gabriel was returned to his normal size as quickly as possible, though.

“I say we take all the precautions we can, summon the angel to a secluded area and see how it goes,” Bobby suggested. The older hunter had kept quiet while Sam had given them all the information and he had let the brothers voice their opinions first, but he was at least as deep into the entire mess as they were, so he had the right to say what he thought of it, too.

The older Winchester nodded his agreement with little reluctance. His younger brother gave a tight nod just seconds later.

They all could agree that this was worth a shot and even though every one of them had his own reasons for doubting that it was the most brilliant idea ever, they all had to admit that they would have come back to the same course of action eventually, anyway.

 

* * *

 

 

“Here goes nothing,” Dean commented dryly after the smoke from the summoning had evaporated and they were still only the six of them.

They had decided that one of the precautions they would take before sending an invitation to Joshua would be to take Castiel with them. Balthazar had shown up as a little extra benefit, as he had called it.

“He probably has something better to do,” Sam huffed, gently rocking the sleepy baby he had cradled against his chest. To tell the truth, he had put some hopes into the meeting that wasn’t going to happen for all it looked like.

“You mean better than hanging out with you delightful fellows? How could that be possible?” Balthazar quipped. However, there was no heat behind the snarking because he stood close enough to pet Gabriel’s soft hair and stroke his cheek affectionately.

The younger Winchester finally understood the very broad hint and very carefully handed the infant over to the waiting arms of his older brother.

Apparently, the archangel didn’t mind being held by his brothers – Castiel and Balthazar, to be precise – for a little while, as opposed to being in Jody’s care for only a few minutes. The human wondered if that was because he somehow understood that they were family, or if he thought that only women might take him away from Sam. Wasn’t it just great to think that they might have given Gabriel the beginnings of a severe case of misogyny on top of his possible abandonment issues? The kid would need a good shrink, eventually.

“Nobody even asked you to be here,” Dean pointed out acidly as he and Bobby started to gather the parts of their equipment that could be reused together.

“And miss a chance to hang out with you delightful fellows?” Balthazar replied with a perfectly innocent tone and expression as he tried to rock the infant to sleep. He had heard of Castiel’s little adventure while holding their baby brother the other day and for some strange reason the thing that had stuck with Balthazar the most was that he wanted to hold Gabriel again, too. Preferably while he was wearing a diaper, though.

Apparently, one of the archangel’s powers was to make people who weren’t crazy about babies crazy about babies.

“Careful Sammy, he might show the littlest douchebag how to be a bigger douchebag again,” Dean snarked as they all went toward the exit of the cabin.

Alright, maybe the older Winchester didn’t actually dislike the infant. Maybe he was grateful that the baby’s presence seemed to have such a good influence on his brother’s mental health. Maybe the little squab was even adorable. He was still Gabriel and that made him a douchebag, however.

“And we all know that’s your area of expertise,” Balthazar shot back in a surprisingly soft tone that came from the fact that the archangel’s breath had just started to even out as he fell asleep.

“Idjits,” Bobby grumbled under his breath. The older hunter had to say that he clearly preferred working with Dean alone. The older Winchester was by far less likely to get distracted by some childish argument when neither his brother nor the British angel were around. That being said, Bobby could also somewhat enjoy watching his boys just being boys, not that he would ever tell them that. He really didn’t need to give them an excuse for even more bickering.

“Aren’t there any other ways to contact Joshua?” Sam asked Castiel, ignoring his brother and the other angel.

“None that are available to us right now,” the dark-haired angel replied matter-of-factly, “You could try to repeat the summoning without Balthazar and myself at another time. He might choose to show himself to a less diverse group of people.”

It was very hard to guess what exactly Joshua’s reasons for doing or not doing things were since he was the only one of them who - most likely - still got his orders from God himself, though.

They did not get a chance to discuss the matter any further, because a third angel arrived in a flutter of wings. Unless Joshua had changed his appearance drastically since they had last seen him, there was no chance that the young, Mexican looking guy was the angel they had been waiting for, however.

“Puriel,” Castiel greeted his newly arrived brother, inclining his head slightly.

The three hunters relaxed visibly. Obviously, the newcomer was one of the angels on their friend’s side. One of Raphael’s goons showing up instead of Joshua would have been exactly what they would have needed!

“Raphael is marching toward the Western quarters, we need your orders,” the angel informed Castiel, barely acknowledging the presence of the humans.

Castiel nodded and looked toward Balthazar who was trying to blend into the background as perfectly as possible. The angel only noticed his mistake when their brother followed his gaze, a deep frown appearing on his face immediately.

“What is this?” Puriel asked, sounding alarmed.

Everyone in heaven and hell knew about the Winchester brothers and one or both of them having an infant of unknown origin and quite obviously an unknown species around them could only mean bad things. Not to mention that he had the very bad feeling that there was something familiar about the child, after all.

Balthazar handed Gabriel back to the younger Winchester. “A baby, which is to say a human in fun size.”

Dean stepped closer to his younger brother, instinctively reaching for his gun, even though it wouldn’t do anything against an angel. Well, they had Castiel and Balthazar with them in case their brother should flip out on them. He surely looked like he might.

“Whatever it is, it’s not human,” Puriel persisted, giving his brother a hard stare.

“This is of no concern for you,” Castiel replied dismissively. He had made sure not to mention anything about Gabriel among even his most trusted followers – with the exception of Balthazar – because letting others know about him might put the infant into danger. Minimizing the number of people who knew he existed was minimizing the risk. The angel did not intend to change anything about that policy, either.

“I have seen it before,” Puriel stated, ignoring what his superior had just said despite himself.

The younger Winchester cringed inwardly before the angel’s face even showed the first clear signs of recognition. It had only been a matter of time, really. Sam tightened his grip on the sleeping baby and took as much of a defensive stance as he could under the circumstances. He wasn’t going to allow anything bad to happen to Gabriel. That was for sure!

“Would you stop calling him an ‘it’, already?” Balthazar asked in a nonchalant tone that didn’t betray that he felt quite uncertain about the entire situation, “He is still our brother.”

Sam really wanted to punch Puriel for the nearly disgusted look that crossed his face and the younger Winchester wasn’t the only one with that sort of feeling.

“Father brought him back,” Castiel added after a moment. There was no use trying to keep the full truth from the other angel, anymore. It had been obvious that he had been very close to figuring this out by himself even before Balthazar had given him a further hint.

“And you allow the abomination to get his hands on our brother?” Puriel spat. He had known Gabriel quite well before the archangel had decided to abandon them and he had spent many years holding a grudge against his brother for doing that, but seeing him in the state and especially the company he was in just didn’t feel right.

Despite the fact that Gabriel had not set foot into heaven for quite some time before he had been killed, all of the angels had felt when he had died and most of them had been affected by the news. It wasn’t every day that an archangel took his last breath, after all.

“Father put Gabriel in Sam Winchester’s care and we are respecting his decision,” Castiel replied, effectively staring the other angel down, “There is nothing to discuss, especially not while there are urgent matters waiting for us.”

The three hunters had to admit that their angelic friend could be quite imposing, if he wanted to be. It was good that Castiel seemed to have a very tight grip on his subordinates, even though their pessimistic minds kept them all from believing that this was the last they would ever hear on the topic. The three angels disappeared without further ado for the moment, however.

Sam let out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding. He gently rocked Gabriel back and forth, even though it didn’t look like the infant had been disturbed in his sleep by everything that had happened at all.

“Looks like there are only three kinds of angels,” Dean snorted, “The awkward ones, the douchebags and the fucking assholes.”

Making stupid jokes was just the older Winchester’s way of dealing with things and the other two hunters knew that all too well. Still, there was quite a lot of truth in the statement. Sam didn’t find it easy to think of even one example that disproved his brother’s theory, anyway.

“Joshua seemed nice enough and not exactly awkward that one time we met him,” the younger Winchester finally stated with a light shrug as they were all walking back to the Impala. Granted, bringing up that one particular angel might not have been the most brilliant idea ever. All the others Sam could have thought of simply fit his brother’s description all too well, though. Anna might have been an exception, if she hadn’t tried to make sure that he was never even born the last time they had seen her. The younger Winchester took that one kind of personally.

“Yeah, but he stood us up which in the very least makes him a douchebag!”


	24. Chapter 24

**23**

 

Sam couldn’t help the pained noise that escaped him as Lucifer yanked his head back as far as it would go without actually snapping his neck. Not that a snapped neck would be the end of anything. It never was.

The devil tightened the grip he had on the human’s hair and smiled to himself when the younger Winchester couldn’t keep the pain from showing on his face. He wasn’t fighting back in the least however. He hadn’t tried that ever since the first few times they had played this game.

Knowing that he effectively killed every last rebellious streak the human ever had in him satisfied Lucifer enough so he could nearly forget that the little maggot was the reason why they all were in the cage, in the first place. Still, knowing that he was the one to accomplish what neither John nor Dean Winchester ever could made hearing Sam beg and promise to do whatever Lucifer wanted him to if only he stopped all the more sweet.

The younger Winchester gasped painfully when the cold of the fallen angel’s touch began to seep into his very being until he felt like his bones might break simply from being frozen to the core. The thought to try and get away from the touch still never even occurred to him, though. It would only be worse, if he did. It would last longer and he wouldn’t get a single moment to breathe. There was no use making things even worse for himself when he had the very small chance that Lucifer would leave him alone before the things that still made him want to die - even after everything - happened, if only he didn’t give the devil a reason to get frustrated with him.

“I love it when you’re being a good boy like this, Sam,” Lucifer nearly cooed, placing his second hand flat on the younger Winchester’s chest while he still kept the tight grip on his hair with the other.

It didn’t surprise Sam that the cold radiating from the fallen angel’s palm gave him a feeling like his heart was being shock frozen, but knowing that it was coming didn’t help with the excruciating pain. Knowing that this was by no means the worst Lucifer could do to him helped with not trying to fight it, though.

He thought he heard Michael snort somewhere to his left, but he had long since stopped paying attention to the other archangel. That he didn’t have to be in his presence often was one of the only things the younger Winchester was still a little grateful for.

“Do you ever think of the man you used to be?” Lucifer whispered into the human’s ear before he suddenly let go of him.

Sam fell forward, instinctively clutching his chest. No, he didn’t think of who he used to be. He very pointedly avoided thoughts like this, because the shame it would bring him didn’t make anything better, either. All he was anymore was Lucifer’s chew toy and he would be for the rest of all eternity. Accepting that made things a little easier, fighting it made everything all the more painful.

The younger Winchester only snapped out of his stupor when he heard a sound that made his insides freeze even more than Lucifer’s touch ever could have. He didn’t want to raise his head to get his worst fears confirmed, but he knew he had to, all the same.

“ _This_ was one of the best ideas I ever came up with,” the devil commented casually, a small smile on his lips as he looked into the crib that had appeared next to him.

Sam watched in horror as Lucifer reached into the crib and touched the infant’s cheek with a single finger, causing the baby to cry out immediately. It wasn’t the first time the devil played this sort of game with him. He couldn’t remember how often he had seen him torture Dean or Bobby, John, Mary, Ellen, Jo… This was different, though.

“No,” the younger Winchester whispered, struggling to get to his knees.

Lucifer just gave him a cruel smirk and continued to drag confused and downright terrified noises out of Gabriel with the lightest of touches. There was no one who knew how to make the littlest things hurt just as much as he could, after all. The best thing was that he didn’t actually have to do anything much to the infant to make Sam believe that he did.

“Stop it!” the younger Winchester demanded as he rose to his feet.

The devil simply laughed at him and wiggled the index finger of his free hand in front of the human.

“Tsis, Sammy. You know better than this,” he stated in a nearly amused tone before his eyes grew as cold as his touch had been and he hissed, “Get to your knees and beg, if you don’t want to see me-“

He didn’t get any further before the younger Winchester punched him with every ounce of strength he could summon from somewhere deep inside of him. The tall human stood panting hard, looking at Lucifer who just looked at him with something close to shock on his face.

“Get your fucking hands off _my_ baby!” Sam pressed through gritted teeth before he got Gabriel out of the crib, holding him against his chest securely.

He knew he shouldn’t open himself to attack like this, but he suddenly also understood that all this was just a dream. Judged by the way the baby was cuddling up to him contently and Lucifer’s image was fading to nothing it was a dream in which he had finally won, too. That realization was enough to make him feel a little dizzy.

It didn’t help that the entire scene was fading and changing in a way that Sam didn’t really know from his dreams. He was still holding on to Gabriel and that was the one thing he needed to keep him grounded, however.

“You wanted to speak to me,” a very calm voice broke the silence that had settled over the scene as the younger Winchester tried to take his new surroundings in.

The garden didn’t look the same Sam remembered from the last time he had been there with Dean. It wasn’t like that mattered, though. Whatever it looked like, being there meant that he got to talk to Joshua and maybe find a solution to Gabriel’s problem.

“Why?” the younger Winchester simply asked before he realized that he should make his question a little more precise, just in case they didn’t have much time, “Why is Gabriel being punished like this and how do I end it?”

He followed Joshua around the garden, readjusting his grip on the infant so he could get a better view, if he wanted to. He didn’t know for sure that Gabriel hadn’t actually been sucked into this dream alongside him, after all.

“God is listening to you right now,” the angel spoke with a small smile, “You could simply ask Him to change Gabriel back.”

The younger Winchester opened his mouth immediately, but then thought better of it and closed it again. He had asked two questions, the first of which the angel had just pointedly ignored. He really wasn’t sure if he should be grateful for the answer he had received or insist on getting more information.

His need to make sure that he was doing the right thing in this matter won out, in the end.

“Are you saying that God would actually turn Gabriel back into an adult, if I asked for it right now?” Sam asked cautiously, looking at the baby he was holding to see if there was any reaction from him, “What’s the catch? Would he… lose his powers? Lose his memories? Be the dead adult he was before?”

The younger Winchester cringed while making the last guess. That was the last thing he wanted! There always was a catch, though. Everything had its price and Sam didn’t want Gabriel to have to pay that price. Especially not when he couldn’t bargain it himself.

“Don’t speak to me like you would to a demon!” Joshua replied in a sharp tone that let the human know that he had made a grave mistake, immediately.

Sam took a somewhat defensive stance instinctively, but he also made sure to look apologetic. Of course, he wasn’t talking to some crossroads demon and he had no reason to believe that Joshua wanted anything from him or Gabriel that they weren’t willing to give. He couldn’t help being very careful when it came to anything concerning the baby angel, however.

“Gabriel would simply be the one he was before,” Joshua added in a softer tone once he was sure that the human had seen reason, “The one you think he should have been resurrected as.”

“What… what do you mean ‘ _you think’_?” Sam asked, nearly pleadingly, “Please, this is important. He’s got to… I’ve got to… If I have to ask God to make him an adult again, if I have to make the decision… I’ve got to make sure I make the right one!”

Gabriel meant much more to the younger Winchester than he had ever thought he would. There was no use denying that he was willing to do just about everything for the baby, so he had to make sure that whatever decision he made was the one that was right for his little charge.

“Our father did not decide to give Gabriel this form on a whim,” the angel explained, giving the human a soul-searching stare, “He is well aware that there are many reasons that would speak for giving him his old form back. He knows that you and your companions think that Gabriel could help to solve your problems. That you need him as the one he was before.”

Sam swallowed audibly. It was true that their best idea about how to beat Raphael and restore peace and order in heaven was to get Gabriel back into the shape where he could help them fight. The younger Winchester had never been very comfortable with that plan – that wasn’t really a plan to begin with – but they simply didn’t have anything else. As little as Sam liked it, if Raphael won they’d probably all die a painful death and that would include Gabriel, baby or not.

The infant looked at his caretaker with a confused expression, sensing his inner conflict and stretched to hug his neck as much as he could. They just kept standing like that for a few long moments before the littlest archangel leaned back a bit and gave Sam a wide, toothless smile that clearly said ‘I trust you’.

“What does _he_ need?” the younger Winchester asked around the lump in his throat.

He knew that he wanted – to the point where it felt like _need_ – to keep his baby with him, but he couldn’t make his decision based on selfish reasons. No matter if those reasons spoke for or against him being an adult again.

Joshua smiled slightly and walked up to the pair, taking the human’s unoccupied hand and placing it on top of Gabriel’s little head.

The wave of emotions hit Sam so hard and while he was completely unprepared for it that he barely had the time to realize that the feelings weren’t coming from him.

Regret. Things weren’t supposed to be this way. He hadn’t been supposed to turn out this way. Doing things against his very nature, betraying everything he should stand for. He couldn’t help it, though. He had cut out a new niche for himself to fit into and he liked it… liked it nearly enough to forget that this wasn’t really him.

Loneliness. It was lonely, always hiding from everyone. Nobody to turn to. Nobody he could be honest with. Friendships that just couldn’t go as deep as he wished they would, because there were always the secrets. Relationships that were nice, great, satisfying, but never honest. At the end of the day, it always was just him and whatever he had been able to come up with to keep the loneliness at bay for another night.

Longing. So much longing for a place he could truly belong to, people who would understand him, love him. Longing for the family he wasn’t sure he had ever had the way he liked to remember them, in the first place. Longing for a chance to make it all better, for a chance to be a member of that family he always wished for…

The younger Winchester gasped and yanked his hand away which made the archangel look at him alarmed. The human forced himself to smile and stroke the infant’s cheek, just a little reluctant to touch him again after what had just happened. This time there was only Gabriel’s happy gurgling, though.

Sam gulped and cradled the baby against his chest more firmly before he looked back at Joshua again.

“Just tell me he hasn’t been feeling this way in the past few weeks,” the younger Winchester requested of the angel, not liking how his voice trembled slightly.

He was pretty sure he had just gotten a good view on the parts of the archangel’s personality he had always kept hidden underneath his trickster persona. It was hard to believe that any of those emotions were left in the infant who was snuggling against Sam like he wanted to crawl right into his skin. Gabriel had shown a lot of different feelings over the weeks, but most of all he had seemed happy and content. That was what his caretaker had read on his face most of the time, anyway. Well, the week they had spent apart was the obvious exception, but the tall human had learned his lesson from that experience.

“You got a glimpse at the state he was in when Father decided to bring him back,” Joshua explained with a compassionate smile.

The younger Winchester nearly winced in sympathy. Dealing with those feelings for a longer period of time couldn’t have been pleasant. Sure, Sam hadn’t felt the same connection to the old Gabriel as he did to the babyfied version he was currently holding, but he had liked him enough to be sorry for him, in the end.

“You should make your choice, Sam Winchester,” the angel stated very seriously after a few moments of silence, “Do you want to let Gabriel grow up, or do you want him to be restored to his adult self immediately?”

Maybe Sam should have found it harder to make that decision. Maybe he should have thought about all the pros and cons longer and harder. He felt without a doubt that he could only choose one of the options anyway, though.

“It’s not about what _I_ want…”

But if what he wanted and what Gabriel wanted went together as perfectly as it did, who was Sam to complain?


	25. Chapter 25

**24**

 

“Wait, what?” Dean asked incredulously and put his mug back on the table hard enough for some of his coffee to spill over.

Their conversation had been rather predictable this far. Sam told a part of the story and his brother would interrupt him with the exact same exclamation he had just made.

_Joshua talked to me in a dream last night. Wait, what?_

_Apparently, Gabriel wanted this new chance at life. Wait, what?_

_God told Joshua I could choose, if he gets turned back into an adult. Wait, what?_

And that was pretty much where they were that very moment.

“You heard me, Dean,” Sam replied calmly, wiggling one of Gabriel’s toys in front of him for the archangel’s amusement, “He’ll stay the way he is and grow up normally.”

To tell the truth, the younger Winchester was quite prepared for his brother exploding at him at that announcement. Especially since he hadn’t tried to be anything like diplomatic about it. Dean didn’t disappoint him, either.

“That’s just fucking great, Sam!” the older Winchester yelled, hitting the table with his palm as he stood up quickly, his breakfast forgotten, “Crowley has us by the balls, Raphael is trying his best to kill Cas and you’re adding a freaking baby to the equation!”

Alright, the baby had been there before, but they had all assume that he wasn’t there to stay. He should have been turned back into his adult self as soon as possible and he should at least help Castiel with the situation in heaven. Dean hadn’t honestly believed that Gabriel might feel inclined to assist them with their problems with the king of hell, but they could handle that on their own. It didn’t look like Cas and Balthazar could handle Raphael on their own, however.

The younger Winchester sighed deeply and tried to hush the infant who had promptly started to wail. He could smile his way through an attack by a vengeful spirit, but as soon as someone got loud he lost his cool.

Dean threw his brother a nasty glare and stormed out of the room before he could say or do any more things he would regret later.

“Your brother will come around eventually,” Bobby commented and effectively reminded Sam that he was present as well with it. The older hunter had chosen to stay in the background and keep quiet, because this was something the brothers had to arrange among themselves. Oh, Bobby was sure that he would be affected by the now permanently changed circumstances, but in the end it didn’t matter to him if Sam returned to hunting or if he didn’t. He hadn’t been the one who had counted on the younger Winchester’s more domestic life being very temporary. In fact, he had had the feeling that they might be stuck with the baby angel for much longer than a few weeks for quite some time.

The younger Winchester nodded tightly and smiled when Gabriel - still with watery eyes - reached for his nose.

“You haven’t said what you think about all this,” Sam pointed out, turning his head towards the older hunter. There was no backing out of the decision he had made anyway, but that didn’t mean that he didn’t want to know what his family was thinking about it. In the end, he would have to deal with whatever consequences there might be and he would deal with them knowing that he had done the one thing that had felt right to him at the time.

“I think you just made your life a whole lot more complicated,” Bobby replied, shooting the younger Winchester a pointed look, “But I haven’t seen you smile as often as you did lately in a long time and whatever makes you that happy is worth holding on to.”

As if on cue, Gabriel started to squirm and babbled at his caretaker as if he wanted to say ‘Listen to the man, human. That’s some good advice right there!’. Sam really thought he had to stop letting the baby address him as ‘human’ when he tried to read what he was attempting to communicate.

“Even if it’s a little pigeon,” the older hunter added with a small smirk and patted the archangel’s head for a few moments.

The younger Winchester was endlessly grateful to know that at least Bobby understood him and was even approving of his decision to some extent. He was sure that Dean would give him enough of a hard time without needing anyone to back him up, anyway.

“Thanks Bobby and thanks for letting us stay here,” Sam stated in a grateful tone as he went to the fridge and held containers with different flavors of pudding in front of Gabriel’s nose until the infant squealed and reached for one.

The younger Winchester was rather sure that he hadn’t been the one to buy the Oreo flavored pudding in the first place and it didn’t seem like something Bobby would go for, so the choice had probably been Dean’s. Really, his older brother and the littlest archangel might get along so well, if only Dean could find it in himself to jump over his own shadow.

“Uhm… do you think you could…?” Sam asked gesturing between Bobby and the infant, “I’d like to try and talk to Dean and I hope Gabe won’t disappear on you, if you’re in charge of the pudding.”

He had to find a way to convince the baby to stay with somebody else for at least a couple of minutes eventually. He couldn’t call for Cas or Balthazar or wait for the time when Gabriel would be fast asleep every time he needed to do something on his own. It would really help if there was a way to build up the infant’s trust in a few carefully selected people and pudding seemed to be a good way to bribe the baby into considering someone a friend.

Bobby raised an eyebrow on the younger Winchester, but accepted the archangel when Sam handed him over without complaint. It wasn’t like it was that much of a sacrifice to spend a few minutes shoveling pudding into the little idjit’s mouth, but he didn’t see a reason to encourage the idea that he might become the number one person to go to for a babysitter!

Sam stayed for a couple of moments to make sure that Gabriel was okay with being held by the older hunter in general. He only hoped that the infant would still keep his cool once he left the kitchen, but it looked like the younger Winchester wouldn’t have needed to worry so much.

“You disappear on me and the next time I’m babysitting will involve a ring of holy fire, you hear me?” Bobby threatened, using a rather soft tone, though. The baby was sitting on his lap calmly, waiting for the next spoonful of pudding, after all. Also, no matter how many years of hunting he had under his belt, Bobby wasn’t completely immune to the charms of a baby, either. He was a little glad that he hadn’t met John Winchester until the boys had been a few years older, otherwise they’d have wrapped him around their little fingers even more easily!

In the meantime Sam had reached the front porch from where he should be able to see if Dean had decided to vent his frustration by working on the Impala as he usually did. It seemed that his older brother hadn’t even made it that far, though.

“Look, I’m sorry,” the younger Winchester started, leaning against the wall next to his brother, “I didn’t really get the chance to talk this through with you guys before I had to make a decision and – before you say it – you wouldn’t have been able to change my mind in this, anyway. I just hope that you can eventually understand that I couldn’t let them force Gabriel into being an adult again when that’s not what he wants. And to be completely honest, it’s not what I want, either.”

If Dean was going to be mad at him, he should at least get all worked up and angry about the truth. Sam had been fully prepared to do everything to turn the archangel back into his original form, even if the thought of losing the baby alone had been very painful to him. The moment he had learned that he wouldn’t do Gabriel a favor with it had been the moment when he had changed his mind, though.

“He’s got the chance to really start over from scratch now,” the younger Winchester added, “And I guess I get the chance to change my life, too.”

The annoyed look Dean shot his way immediately let him know that he had just said something very wrong. He should have expected it, really. Well, the last times he had tried to go and change his life that had always involved both of them going their own way and breaking contact.

“Dean, I’m not saying I want out completely. It’s not going to be like Stanford,” Sam promised before he added with a sigh, “At least, I don’t want it to be. I don’t want to lose contact and I don’t want to stop doing the research and assisting in any way I can without… you know… actually being there. I can’t force you to accept that, of course.”

In the end, his brother would have to decide if he could live with that. The younger Winchester didn’t really expect that Dean might turn his back on him, but it was an option his brother had.

“Would you please say something?” Sam asked after the older Winchester continued to simply look at him for a few more awfully long moments.

“It’s nice to see you without that angelic growth on your shoulder for a change,” Dean finally said with a small smirk, putting a hand on his younger brother’s shoulder.

Of course, the older Winchester made stupid jokes to hide how he really felt more often than not and it wasn’t always all too clear what kind of feeling he was hiding, but the way he had touched Sam let him know that they were at least sort of okay. He could understand that all this had come rather sudden for his older brother and he knew that Dean wasn’t exactly the sort of guy who appreciated changes to the few things that were constants in his life all too much.

“Pretty sure it’ll only be the two of us until the Oreo pudding runs out, at least,” the younger Winchester replied with a shrug. Who knew what the archangel would do once he wasn’t busy getting sugar into his system anymore?

“Dude! I wanted to eat that!” Dean exclaimed, “You’d better make sure Gabe doesn’t get his hands on my pie ever, or I can’t guarantee for anything!”

Sam tried not to smile too much about the fact that his brother had just called the archangel by his nickname instead of any of the other terms he usually used to describe the infant. He didn’t mention that Gabriel could always just make some pie appear, if he wanted to have some and that if Dean got on his good side, he might also will some into existence for him. The younger Winchester had neglected to inform his brother about the baby’s latest demonstration of his powers in the bathroom and that included never mentioning the incident with the rubber ducks and the towel, after all. He wasn’t going to open that can of worms when Dean was still struggling to get used to the fact that they had a new family member now.

“Yeah, yeah, the pie is sacred,” Sam rolled his eyes, “I’ll make sure that he learns to keep his hands off uncle Dean’s stuff.”

Thinking how most of his older brother’s things were weapons of some sort that probably was a really good thing to teach the baby, anyway. The younger Winchester still wasn’t quite sure how he was supposed to have some sort of authority over a being that – even as an infant – was so much more powerful than he was, but he was quite sure they’d be able to work something out. This far they had managed to solve every little problem that had come their way. Too bad that the really big problems still remained.

“Damn straight,” Dean stated, for once not protesting against being called ‘uncle’. The younger Winchester took that as a good sign, too.

“While we’re at it,” the older Winchester added in a completely faked serious tone, “You’ll teach him to respect classic cars and especially the Impala and his musical education won’t be in your hands. We already talked about the clothes and I am sad to say that you still haven’t made any improvements concerning that matter, yet.”

The taller man thought he should take the fact that his brother was obviously teasing him while showing some interest in certain things concerning the archangel as a good sign, too. That didn’t mean that he wouldn’t grow tired of it quickly, however.

“Are you quite done?” Sam snorted after waiting for the continuation of the rant for a few moments.

“For now, yeah,” Dean replied, obviously rather pleased with himself.

The brothers stood in amiable silence for a little longer. Maybe these new developments hadn’t come all too surprising for both of them, after all. They both couldn’t deny that, even if they took the fact that the separation from Gabriel had eaten at Sam at the time out of the equation, hunting together hadn’t been the same as before and it probably would have never been. Neither of them would have wanted to say it out loud, but it might be for the best that they were forced to make certain changes, anyway.

They both decided that they’d better get back inside at nearly the same time. Dean really wanted to see how Bobby was doing with the infant and Sam thought he should free their father figure from his babysitter duties as quickly as possible.

Just before the younger Winchester could open the door his brother’s hand on his shoulder stopped him, though.

“Oh and Sammy, just so we’re clear on this, I demand at least six months notice on any further nieces or nephews!”


	26. Chapter 26

**25**

 

“The elusive Bobby Singer,” Sheriff Jody Mills greeted the man who had just opened the door for her with a small, amused smile.

“Ghostbuster Mills,” Bobby replied, stepping aside to let her enter. It wasn’t like they had anything much to hide from the woman anymore, after all. Besides, as he knew her, she wouldn’t simply turn around and leave, if he didn’t let her enter immediately, anyway.

“Speaking of which,” Jody stated once they were both standing inside the house, “I brought a little something to say thank you for the help.”

The sheriff had brought something for the little pyromaniac archangel, if the plastic bag from a baby store she was carrying was any indication. Bobby frowned and shook his head as affectionately as he would ever get and went toward the living room where all the others were gathered together. Jody just had to stop and stare when they got close enough to see and hear the four men and the baby, though.

“I do not think that ‘meow’ is an appropriate representation of the very complex sounds cats communicate with,” Castiel stated seriously, looking at the page in the picture book for babies as if he was trying to will it to change its content, “Why would one want to misinform children like this?”

Dean had already been amused when the angel had first picked up the book, but he was laughing hysterically after hearing Cas’ review of ‘my first animal sounds book’. The older Winchester could admit that having all the stupid baby stuff around was at least good for a laugh whenever Castiel popped in. Not to mention that some of the things were actually rather neat. And maybe Dean was looking forward to having a very good excuse for buying a slot car racing track in the near future just a little. He might even let Gabriel play with it, after thoroughly testing that it was completely safe and amusing enough for the archangel, of course.

“Because parents don’t want their children to be smarter than they are all too soon,” Dean explained once he had calmed down again. Apparently, Castiel didn’t think that this was an acceptable reason as he put the book down with a disdainful look.

The younger Winchester had chuckled along with his brother’s laughing and thus had failed to pay enough attention to what he was actually meant to be doing. The plush angel hit him in the face with enough force to remind him immediately, however.

“You might have given me a warning,” Sam huffed and threw Balthazar a reprimanding look, especially because the angel didn’t look sorry in the slightest. It looked like the angel thought that the fact that Gabriel was rather amused by his caretaker being hit in the face with a toy made it okay. Actually, it really was hard to stay mad when the archangel was gurgling happily.

The younger Winchester picked Gabstiel back up again and wiggled the plush angel around in front of him until he had the baby’s attention. He and Balthazar were sitting crosslegged on the floor with a little distance between them that Gabriel had to crawl or shuffle across if he wanted to get to his toy again. Sam wasn’t quite sure how they had gotten into this position anymore, but he couldn’t deny that they were very successful with encouraging the archangel to move around between the two of them.

Gabriel clearly preferred shuffling around on his butt to cross small distances, but he was getting better and faster the more he did it, so he reached the younger Winchester in no time flat. Once there the infant chose to ignore his toy, however. All the exercise had made him a little tired, so he did his best to climb into his favorite human’s lap and curled up, resting his head on Sam’s thigh.

The younger Winchester figured that the sleeping position couldn’t be quite as uncomfortable as it looked, because Gabriel seemed to be content with it, especially when the tall human began to gently stroke his back.

“This is a very rudimentary depiction of the human body,” Castiel commented, looking through yet another one of the books Sam had bought for the baby. Something about them fascinated the angel, even though they were simplifying things by far too much for his taste.

“He’s about fourteen years too young for the stuff you’re talking about, Cas. Sixteen if he takes after Sammy,” Dean replied with a chuckle, only then noticing that they had a visitor, but it wasn’t like any of the others had been faster than he had been. “Hey, Sheriff Mills.”

“This is a private visit. Jody will do,” the sheriff stated, clearly amused by the scenes she had just witnessed. It wasn’t exactly what she had come to expect from a visit at Bobby Singer’s house, but it was a nice change.

“Uhu, private visit,” Dean repeated after her, giving Bobby a wide and very stupid grin. The older hunter made a mental note to hit the older Winchester over the back of his head at the first chance he got.

Jody mercifully ignored the comment and just approached Sam and handed the smaller of the two bags she was carrying to him. “A little something to thank you for the help with that ghost.”

The younger Winchester was clearly surprised, but gave Sheriff Mills a dimpled smile as he took the bag and tried to see what’s inside without waking Gabriel up. He chuckled once the babyphone was uncovered.

“I figured it might give you a warning before he just…” Jody trailed off and made a vague ‘poof’ motion with her hands before she held up the other bag, “And I brought pie, but I didn’t think there’d be so many people around.”

Dean’s eyes immediately lit up at the mention of his favorite desert.

“No worries, those two don’t ‘require sustenance’!” he pointed out, daring Castiel and Balthazar to say otherwise with a glare. Friends or not, there were things that didn’t need to be shared with everyone! He could barely deny Sam a piece, looking at how he was the one Jody had brought the pie for, technically. Bobby had to have one too, looking at how he was the one she had probably really brought the pie for.

Balthazar rose to his feet gracefully and shook his head about the human’s antics. “I have more of a craving for Italian right now, anyway. Which reminds me of something.”

He and Castiel had chosen to pay the Winchesters a visit to recuperate and see how everything was going now that they knew that Gabriel’s condition was permanent, but that didn’t mean that Balthazar didn’t have other things he really wanted to do, too.

“It has been lovely to meet you,” the blonde angel told the sheriff with a charming smile, going as far as to kiss to the back of her hand, “But you know what they say; things to see, people to do.”

He disappeared from the room before his words could sink in. Dean facepalmed, anyway.

“I’ll make some coffee,” Bobby announced and walked toward his kitchen, but not before he added a grumbled, “Idjits.”

Jody blinked a couple of times and went after him. She had suspected that the two men she didn’t know were angels before, but when the blonde man had disappeared just the same way the baby had a couple days earlier she felt her suspicions were confirmed. She’d probably never get fully used to people being there the one second and then suddenly being gone the next, however.

Sheriff Mills took the pie out of the carton she had transported in the plastic bag and yelped when she stepped on one of Gabriel’s toys on her way to find some plates. As soon as the first shock had passed she couldn’t help chuckling quietly to herself, though.

Bobby raised an eyebrow at Jody and gave her a questioning look.

“Things have changed around here,” she answered with a shrug, “And I think it’s doing you some good, too.”

 

* * *

 

 

For most of his existence Castiel had had a very limited range of emotions and those he had experienced had been very controlled, never in control of him. It was the way angels were supposed to be, or so all of them had been told for a very long time.

Castiel had learned that he quite enjoyed experiencing different emotions after he had taken his vessel and had encountered the Winchesters and he now knew that letting his feelings play a part in most things he did made him better, helped him understand things that he had never hoped to understand.

Despite all this, there were moments when Castiel wished that he had never loosened the very tight grip he used to have on his emotions what seemed to be a lifetime ago.

“You betrayed us!” the dark-haired angel hissed in a tone that seemed to come naturally with all the disappointment, frustration and - worst of all - fear he felt. Fear was one of those emotions the angel felt he really couldn’t deal with all too well.

“You betrayed us first!” Puriel replied in an equally dangerous tone, “Keeping the fact that Gabriel was brought back a secret and allowing him to be under the influence of the Winchesters of all people!”

The two angels were circling each other, even though neither of them had the intention to strike, for the moment being. They both knew it was inevitable by this point, but the right moment to attack hadn’t presented itself to either one of them, yet.

“It wasn’t my choice to make,” Castiel repeated what he had tried to explain the first time the topic had come up with his brother. Their father had decided to resurrect Gabriel and Sam alongside each other and at the same place at the same time. Somehow the two had formed a very strong bond before anyone else had even gotten involved and every time Gabriel chose to fly back to Sam, every time Sam chose to put Gabriel’s needs before everything else, it was crystal clear to Castiel that their father had made the right decision.

“What gives you the right to say that you can choose not to follow your superiors anymore then, Castiel?” Puriel spat and finally threw himself at the other angel.

Castiel managed to parry the blow with his own angel blade just a moment before he would have been wounded severely or even killed. The move allowed him to get close enough to his brother to land a solid kick against his shin and throw him off balance, though. Castiel didn’t hesitate to embed his blade in Puriel’s chest.

No matter how angry he had been when he had found out that the other angel had betrayed him and had informed Raphael about Gabriel’s condition, it still was no pleasure to watch Puriel’s grace burst out of his vessel as he died.

Castiel threw one last look at the dead angel before he flew back to Bobby Singer’s house where four pairs of worried eyes and the puzzled expression of an infant awaited him.

Balthazar had arrived in a hurry a little while earlier and after making sure that all the protections he had put up were still firmly in place had given the three humans a short summary of the situation. Luckily Raphael knowing about Gabriel didn’t mean that he knew where to find him, but he knew that he should be searching now and that was bad enough.

“Cas?” Dean asked a little worried after a few tense moments of silence. The angel didn’t look hurt, but the way he was just looking at them without saying anything was concerning, anyway.

“Puriel suffered the consequences for his betrayal,” Castiel informed them in a rather neutral tone.

Balthazar nodded grimly. He wasn’t above feeling some satisfaction knowing that the damn traitor wouldn’t get a chance to do anything to bring harm upon any of them anymore. Apparently, the others shared his opinion on that matter.

The knowledge that this was by no means the end of their problems was weighting down on all of them, though. They couldn’t hide from Raphael forever, especially not now that he knew they were hiding and that they were hiding something he would have a great interest in getting his hands on. That it couldn’t mean anything good for any of them if Raphael managed to take Gabriel from them was a no-brainer, too.

“Hey, we…” Dean cleared his throat and started again, “We went up against Michael and Lucifer and kicked their asses and we didn’t even have Captain Snarky-Pants with us then. Raphael will go down!”

Balthazar snorted at the title he had been given, but didn’t comment and nodded along with the human’s reasoning. Indeed, as he himself had said some time ago, the Winchesters and their little posse were the ones to go to for impossible tasks, anyway.

The ‘or we die trying’ was on the tip of Sam’s tongue, but he didn’t feel all too tempted to say it out loud which was partly due to Gabriel’s loud, upbeat squeal. The archangel apparently liked the little motivational speech his foster-uncle had just given. It also inspired him to try and give his own which purely consisted of a string of random sounds and earned him a pat on the head from the older Winchester and an amused chuckle from Balthazar.

Sure, they were all pretty much doomed, but when weren’t they? And they were all still standing and most importantly they were all still standing together!

Later that night the archangel adamantly refused to let go of Sam and even appeared right back against the younger Winchester’s shoulder the one time he had managed to put him into his crib. Sam sighed, but stroked the baby’s cheek with the back of his fingers affectionately and let Gabriel sleep next to him on the bed instead. The baby gave him a wide, toothless grin and snuggled up to his chest some more on the search of the best sleeping position.

“You’re so lucky I love you, shorty,” Sam mumbled, petting the infant’s hair as he watched his eyelids drop before he quickly opened his eyes again only to close them another time a second later.

Watching the baby fight sleep might have been one of the most adorable things the younger Winchester had seen all day, but he still rubbed soothing circles on Gabriel’s back and made silent calming noises to help him go to rest.

“Dada,” Gabriel sighed, letting out a deep breath and relaxing against his caretaker completely, finally falling asleep.

The younger Winchester didn’t even try to wipe the stupid grin off his face.


	27. Chapter 27

**26**

 

“So, basically we’d need an archangel’s blade to kill Raphael,” Dean stated thoughtfully, taking another sip of his still too hot coffee.

It probably wasn’t the best topic to discuss over breakfast, especially with an archangel sitting right there, but they had to talk about it eventually and the archangel in question didn’t really understand a word he was saying, anyway.

“Yeah, but I don’t think it’ll be so easy to get one of those,” Sam sighed deeply, tousling Gabriel’s hair when the baby looked up to him with big, questioning eyes, “You stay away from those things at all times, too. Hear me?”

The younger Winchester knew very well that in the end he was the one who had to make sure that nothing that could actually harm the infant got close to him. Despite all the powers Gabriel had inside of him he still was just a baby who didn’t know how to use them for anything other than very instinct driven actions. Instinct driven actions and to make pictures Sam had on his mind a reality when he felt like it.

“You sure Gabe doesn’t have one of those tucked away in his diapers or something?” Dean asked sarcastically.

Of course, killing Raphael wouldn’t be easy, even if they had the right equipment, but it would give them a chance, at least. It was rather disconcerting that Castiel had been working on this for quite some time and hadn’t been able to come up with a solution.

The only other way to get rid of an archangel they knew of was trapping them in Lucifer’s cage, but that wasn’t an available option for obvious reasons, either.

“Pretty sure,” Sam snorted. He hadn’t been able to convince Gabriel that peeing wasn’t funny or that he could basically just conjure up clean diapers for himself, so he would know if the archangel kept anything hidden in or under his clothes.

The younger Winchester shook his head slightly amused about the turn his thoughts had just taken and picked the archangel up to take him to the fridge for his morning pudding. The baby squealed excitedly and chose a container of chocolate and cherry flavored pudding when Sam showed the different options he had to him.

“Dada!” Gabriel exclaimed, snuggling up to the younger Winchester some more, even as his eyes never left the pudding.

It seemed he really enjoyed saying that one word, too. Sam had woken up to the infant patting around in his face while babbling on and on and basically only saying the one word he had mastered and that immediately put a smile on his caretaker’s face, too.

“Okay, I give up,” Dean stated throwing his arms over his head rather showily, “Uncle Dean it is!”

If the archangel started to honestly call Sam his dad now then the older Winchester wouldn’t have a choice but to embrace his new role and make sure that the only nephew he might ever get knew that he was the cool uncle. After he had already had some time to get used to the thought he found that he didn’t mind too much, anyway. It had been kind of obvious that things were heading this way as soon as Sam had announced that Gabriel was going to stay a kid for the next eighteen years or something like that.

The baby was so busy staring at the older Winchester that he nearly forgot to accept the spoonful of pudding the younger Winchester was offering him. He could feel that the attitude the human had toward him had changed and it puzzled him a little, but at the same time it made the other adult all the more interesting.

Sam couldn’t keep the stupid grin off his face when he realized that his brother and the littlest archangel were just about to finally bond, as well. He had expected Dean to put up more of a fight, had feared it actually, but it seemed that he needn’t have worried. Nobody seemed to be fully immune to the charms of the infant. Hell, even Bobby was starting to throw glances into Gabriel’s direction just to make sure that everything was okay and there was nothing he needed.

When Dean stood up to get something from the fridge himself Gabriel finally turned his full attention back on the matter at hand and started to devour his meal.

“Oh man,” the older Winchester complained as soon as he saw that they were only left with the boring pudding flavors, “Does he always have to eat all the good stuff?”

The younger Winchester chuckled and just continued to feed the archangel. Dean should rather be glad that Gabriel didn’t have any interest in beer or pie this far!

“Oh please, you just want the pudding because he has it,” Sam replied, “One might think there are two babies around here.”

The older Winchester sat back down, throwing a nasty glare toward his brother.

“Being around him would give everyone a craving for pudding,” he sulked. He also didn’t think that his brother had a valid point, because the pudding was the only thing Gabriel had that he wanted. Well, there was that car racing track that he was going to get him one of these days, but Sam didn’t even know about that, so he couldn’t have taken that into consideration and his point was invalid.

The younger Winchester shook his head exasperatedly, but then smiled slightly and ducked his head so he could whisper to the baby. “Do you want to make uncle Dean happy?”

Gabriel made a few joyful sounds and turned his head to plant a messy kiss on Sam’s cheek before he just stared at his caretaker for a few moments. When he turned back toward the table and reached for the pudding as a clear sign that he wanted to eat more now there was suddenly a second, unopened container of the same pudding standing next to it.

Dean blinked a couple of times and poked the offending object with his index finger, giving his brother a look that clearly demanded an explanation.

“What? You wanted one, now you’ve got one,” the younger Winchester shrugged and gave Gabriel a quick peck to the back of his head to show that he had done well and Sam was proud of him. The archangel snuggled a little more into the human’s chest and made silent happy noises that didn’t only come from enjoying his meal.

“I’m not eating something he…” Dean made a few vague hand gestures and eyed the pudding critically, as if he thought it might explode or something like that.

“Dude, relax,” Sam chuckled, “I… a couple days ago I noticed that I could sort of plant those ideas into his head and he’d just make stuff appear and I wasn’t picturing anything out of the ordinary.”

The older Winchester groaned. He wasn’t all that happy to only hear about this now, but he had to admit that he was also curious, so he finally opened the container and gave an experimental sniff. Dean made a point out of giving a long suffering sigh before he stood up to get a spoon, but his face clearly showed that he approved of the texture and taste of his treat.

“How about you try to picture a suitcase full of money?” the older Winchester suggested with a grin which was probably as close to saying ‘good job there’ as he’d ever get under the circumstances.

“I could help you with that,” Crowley’s voice disturbed the easy atmosphere in Bobby’s kitchen, “I don’t have to tell you how that would work.”

To everyone’s surprise Gabriel was the first who reacted to the demon’s presence as he started to rock back and forth on Sam’s lap, babbling happily. The king of hell only smirked and waved at the baby.

“Maybe you should try to picture his head exploding,” Dean stated acidly.

The younger Winchester doubted that that would work since Gabriel was obviously fond of Crowley for some reason the human didn’t understand. Also, they still needed the king of hell to nullify the contract he had on Bobby’s soul. They didn’t even know for sure if killing the demon would automatically render it void, it probably wouldn’t, though.

“Is that the way to treat the bearer of good news?” Crowley shook his head in mock disappointment, “Where is Old Grumpy?”

It didn’t take long for Bobby to join them in the kitchen once the older Winchester called out who exactly was here to talk to them.

“First of all,” Crowley started as soon as the three humans were all glaring at him, “My congratulations on a job well done. You got rid of all those pesky demons much faster than I would have thought.”

Bobby’s entire being was tense, waiting for the moment when the demon would announce that he had decided to back out on their deal entirely or that he had changed it last minute, at least. Instead the king of hell only stepped closer to him, earning himself a deep scowl by doing so and reached out to touch the human’s shoulder.

“Consider your contract fulfilled,” Crowley shrugged lightly and gave the oldest of the hunters some more space again. He might have liked to watch him squirm under different circumstances, but he had other things to do than to annoy Bobby Singer, unfortunately.

“And you consider my debts paid,” the king of hell stated in a demanding tone, putting a small vial with a blood red liquid – most likely actual blood – on the table in front of the younger Winchester.

It took a moment before Sam even understood that Crowley hadn’t been talking to him – which wouldn’t have made any sense – but to the infant sitting in his lap. Not that that made so much more sense.

“What the hell-,“ Dean started a question, but was rudely interrupted by the king of hell before he could say anything more.

“Did you really think I wouldn’t do some research on your little friend there?” Crowley asked, raising his voice a little. He had had this nagging feeling that he had known the infant before he had been a baby ever after he had touched him briefly during his last visit. It had taken him a while to connect that feeling to a trickster he had come across quite some time ago and who unfortunately had gotten into the position where one could say that he had saved Crowley’s neck.

“Picture my surprise when a little Indian birdie told me about the last time she ever saw Loki who apparently wasn’t even Loki, at all,” the king of hell added just to make sure that the humans understood that he really had all the information before he turned to the infant again, “I paid a lot for your blood, just so we’re clear on that. Don’t come trying to demand more once you speak again!”

It was somewhat freaky to watch Crowley talk to the baby, nearly as if he was talking to the old Gabriel and it didn’t become any less surreal when the archangel raised his little hands and grabbed the demon’s finger that he had extended toward him. It was quite satisfying to see the hints of a wince that the demon couldn’t suppress at the sudden contact, nearly as if he expected the littlest archangel to smite him on the spot.

“Apparently, an archangel, even one as little as Gabe, wouldn’t have much of a problem killing you. That’s good to know,” Dean stated smugly. A little payback for all the crap Crowley had forced upon them had been long overdue, anyway!

“It figures that you morons wouldn’t know anything about reasonable carefulness,” Crowley shot back without missing a beat. It was true that the realization who exactly the trickster was had forced the demon to reconsider a few things. He hadn’t exactly intended to make it this easy for Bobby to get out of his contract, but pushing this little group of misfits too far just hadn’t seemed like a good idea after getting to know who they had with them. You didn’t live as long and with as little negative repercussions as Crowley had without choosing your steps very cautiously.

“I do know that it’d be in your best interest to help us,” Sam suddenly spoke up. He didn’t have too many hopes that the king of hell would listen to reason, but desperate times called for desperate measures and it wasn’t like they had anything to lose by trying.

“Careful who you try to blackmail, you twat!” the demon spat, glaring at the younger Winchester.

“This isn’t about blackmail, Crowley,” the tall human replied matter-of-factly, “It’s about facts and the facts say that Raphael wants to break Lucifer and Michael out of their cage. With all your _reasonable carefulness_ I’m sure I don’t need to tell you why that would be bad for all of us.”

The king of hell didn’t show any signs that Sam’s little speech had left an impression with him, but the younger Winchester was quite sure it had, anyway. If there was someone who understood how terrifying the thought of Lucifer getting his hands on them was, it was Sam, after all.

“You better not let him succeed then,” Crowley stated nonchalantly before he freed his finger from Gabriel’s grip and simply pointed at the infant, “You’ve got a perfectly good power source right there, I suggest you use it.”

The younger Winchester really had to fight the urge to punch the demon right in his stupid face for even suggesting something like that. Gabriel wasn’t going to get anywhere close to Raphael or any sort of battlefield if Sam had something to say in the matter and since he was the archangel’s chosen foster father he had a say in it!

“My sources say that Raphael is planning to do exactly that, anyway,” the demon added before he spoke on in a sharper tone, “So you morons better get off your high horse and do what’s necessary!”

Crowley was rather lucky that he was gone before Sam actually pictured his head exploding in the most painful way possible. It was doubtful that Gabriel would have picked up on it just like that and even more doubtful that he would have done it, but the younger Winchester liked to think that it would have been possible.

The archangel looked up to his caretaker with big, confused eyes and started to make little complaining noises while trying to move until Sam understood the message and picked him up, holding him against his shoulder. This gave the baby the chance to hug the younger Winchester’s neck and rub his little head against the adult’s cheek. “Dada!”

They might be just as far from finding a solution to their problems as they had been before, but Sam just had to smile, anyway.


	28. Chapter 28

**27**

 

“First things first,” Dean started, looking at Castiel, “Did Crowley actually let Bobby out of his contract?”

Balthazar might have felt a little insulted by being ignored completely – he was as much of an expert in these things as Cas was, after all – but he was a little busy getting an ever squirming Gabriel under control. The baby just wouldn’t settle into one position and always kept demanding to be held in a different way as soon as Balthazar had a good grip on him again. It was awfully distracting to say the least. The blonde angel didn’t dream of handing his little brother back over to the younger Winchester, however.

Bobby had never felt quite as naked while being completely dressed as he did the moment Castiel turned his soul-searching stare at him. He hadn’t felt quite as relieved as he did the moment the angel nodded slightly in quite some time as well, though.

They all hadn’t put it past Crowley to try and trick them into believing that the matter was dealt with only to find a couple of hellhounds on Bobby’s door ten years later. The king of hell wasn’t exactly trustworthy and his complete refusal to actively help them didn’t make anything better, either.

Well, a part of Dean was quite glad that Crowley wouldn’t be working with them, anyway. Sure, they might have needed the help, but as things were they didn’t need to worry that the demon might betray them at any second, at least. Damn, one of Castiel’s own followers had betrayed him, so it seemed like a foregone conclusion that Crowley would have done the same.

“Okay, good,” the older Winchester sighed relieved. That meant they had solved one of their problems a lot more easily than they all would have thought. Who said that Winchesters couldn’t get lucky every now and then?

“Crowley also mentioned something about Raphael while he was here,” Sam stated, chewing on his lower lip. He was actually afraid to hear more about the matter, but he knew they had to talk about it, anyway.

Even if the younger Winchester was nearly completely sure that none of them would even consider using Gabriel in the way the demon had suggested, Raphael apparently did and that was troublesome to say the least. Well, Sam was willing to defend his little angel to the last breath, but that alone wouldn’t help the archangel any. He’d only have a dead caretaker and his older brother would still be after him.

“Basically, he suggested that we should use Gabe as a power source,” Sam explained, “Because Raphael was planning to do it, anyway.”

The way both Balthazar and Castiel looked at him completely scandalized pretty much confirmed what the younger Winchester had feared, anyway. First of all there probably was some way to use the baby as a weapon of sorts and it couldn’t be harmless and safe for the infant, either.

Gabriel immediately picked up on the changed mood in the room. His quest to drive the blonde angel crazy by squirming and demanding to be held in always different ways found an abrupt end as a small pout appeared on his face and he made a few confused noises. The infant didn’t like the way his brother had gone all tense and he also didn’t like how everyone had stopped speaking.

“Dada!” Gabriel cried at the top of his little lungs, reaching for the one person who always reacted to the word and who was always happiest to hear him say it. Of course, it was also the one person he wanted to be returned to immediately.

Sam made silent comforting noises and cradled the baby against his chest, reaching for the cloth he had always tucked into the back pocket of his jeans these days to wipe the tears off the infant’s face.

“Alright, while he is already upset, speak up guys,” Dean demanded, sort of dreading the answer to his question, “What did Crowley mean?”

They should all know what the hell Raphael was most surely planning to do with his baby brother, if he ever got his hands on him. It wasn’t like they needed any more reasons to fight the son of a bitch, but knowing some of your enemy’s motivation was a useful thing in general.

“Raphael, arsehole that he is, might…” Balthazar stated, but trailed off looking over to his baby brother with unconcealed worry in his expression, “He might try to take some or all of Gabriel’s grace for himself.”

The baby wouldn’t even know how to properly protect himself, either. While his instincts might help him to ward off an attack from any random angels he wouldn’t stand a chance against another archangel.

“Are you saying that angels can basically leech off of each other?” Bobby asked with a deep frown. Which begged the question why they didn’t do it more often. This angelic civil war might have been over much sooner, though the older hunter doubted that they would have liked the outcome.

“It is largely considered a horrendous crime to even attempt such a thing!” Castiel replied with an affronted look, “If it doesn’t outright kill the other angel, it leaves them an empty shell of who they used to be, and completely vulnerable to attack, as well.”

The last time Dean had seen the angel this outraged he had been beaten up in some dark alley, so he couldn’t help being a little grateful that his friend’s anger wasn’t directed at him this time. It served as a nice reminder about just how powerful Castiel actually was, though.

The younger Winchester was rather busy whispering little nonsensical reassurances to the baby while rubbing his back and rocking him gently. It didn’t help the littlest archangel’s mood any that Cas was clearly agitated, but he allowed his foster-father to hush him to the point where the angel only clung to the human but stayed silent otherwise.

“Not to mention it’s not quite that easy,” Balthazar added, but even his usually casual demeanor had vanished nearly completely and had made place to seriousness, “There are rather specific rituals and they have been forbidden for a long time. Also, handling so much more power than you were created to take… the very few times this has been done basically drove the one doing it insane.”

Of course, this was a part of the reason why it was as much of a taboo as it was. An insane angel with that sort of power was very dangerous to everyone including themselves. It was also why it was so hard to believe that Raphael would even think about attempting something like it, but they had to say that their brother had definitely shown signs of insanity before.

“No archangel has ever done anything alike, but it stands to reason that Raphael would think that with Gabriel’s altered state he would be able to carry out the ritual without any ill repercussions,” Castiel spoke matter-of-factly, but his eyes glinted dangerously.

Once again, Dean was quite glad that the angel’s obvious anger wasn’t directed at him. It was too bad that Castiel’s righteous rage wouldn’t help them overcome the all too palpable disadvantage they were at. Raphael was an archangel who had a lot of people behind him while their side only had ordinary angels. Well, the archangel they had was currently gnawing at the collar of Sam’s shirt and if they couldn’t trap Raphael in a big container of pudding it seemed safe to say that Gabriel wouldn’t be of too much use to them in the fight.

“So, we keep Gabe away from Raphael,” Dean concluded with a shrug, “Not like that’s a change of plans or anything.”

Alright, so they knew that they really had to keep the baby away from his brother under any circumstances, but it wasn’t like they had thought about arranging play dates before. The older Winchester really didn’t like the meaningful looks Castiel and Balthazar exchanged, though.

“Alright, what’s going on?” Sam asked before his brother had the chance to do it. He might have been preoccupied with calming the littlest archangel down, but that didn’t mean that he had missed everything else that had been said and done. There clearly was something that the two adult angels weren’t saying and if they needed to be prompted to spill their guts then that was what he would do.

“We have received an ultimatum,” Castiel replied, “We can surrender Gabriel to Raphael, or he will launch an attack on us and take him by force.”

Sam instinctively tightened his grip on the baby after hearing that piece of information. He had expected something like this, but having his fears confirmed still gave a painful stab to his insides.

“How long have you known about this, Cas?” Dean groaned.

They had known that they were in trouble, but this clearly took the cake. It didn’t help the older Winchester’s mood any that they hadn’t been able to come up with anything that might help them to get rid of Raphael in the entire time they had had to look into it.

Their best bet had been getting Gabriel to simply smite his brother once he was an adult again, but they clearly didn’t have the eighteen years to wait for that to happen. Still, looking at how close Sam and the baby were and how comfortable they were around each other made it impossible for Dean to even consider that his brother had made the wrong choice when he hadn’t asked for Gabriel to be turned back, though.

“The ultimatum was issued yesterday,” Castiel admitted.

“And when did you think you’d tell us about it?” Dean asked with a snort. He really didn’t appreciate it when the people closest to him started to hide things for whatever reason. Usually, nothing good came from that!

Castiel met the older Winchester’s disappointed gaze but didn’t answer. He thought he understood enough of humans – especially the Winchesters – to know that they wouldn’t appreciate hearing that there had been no use telling them when there was nothing they could do, anyway. He had tried to come up with a solution with Balthazar and his other most trusted supporters, but they were all of the opinion that the odds simply weren’t in their favor. Castiel believed in his friends and especially Dean with all his heart and he had seen them do things nobody would have thought possible, but this was still out of their league.

“What are the chances that Raphael would know where to find us?” Sam wanted to know after a short moment of silence. He knew that they couldn’t hide forever, but maybe some more time to prepare their own strategy was all they needed.   
“How long do you think it would take him to figure this brilliant hiding place out?” Balthazar shot back sarcastically.

The angel was right, of course. As far as hiding places went, going to the closest you ever had to a real home – that didn’t have four wheels – wasn’t the choice that nobody was going to guess you might make.

“It’s about time we showed that feathered dimwit that he’s been messing with the wrong family, anyway,” Bobby stated gruffly, nodding toward Dean and Castiel before he gave Sam a small smile. The archangel wasn’t going to get his hands on the newest addition to their little strange family and he would learn how much of a difference a bunch of very determined humans with an access to all sorts of weapons could make.

“What do you suggest we do?” Castiel asked, tilting his head.

They were at a point where any plan was better than what they had, but there hadn’t been a sign that the older hunter had one for them before he had made his very optimistic statement.

“I say you inform everyone who’s willing to listen about the plan your insane brother has for the little squab and hope they get even a fraction as upset about it as you did,” Bobby replied firmly, “And we gather everything we have that’s even remotely likely to hurt an angel and show everyone that we are not going down without a fight.”

Balthazar and Castiel exchanged looks again. Informing their brothers, especially the ones that had decided that they didn’t want to join either side, of Raphael’s plans for Gabriel could have unforeseen consequences. Of course, there was a chance that the human was right and they would gain followers, but a lot of angels had a very bad opinion of the archangel who had decided to abandon them all ages ago and might simply not care what happened to him, or even decide to support Raphael. Then again, there should be some morale outrage about the archangel’s plans, at least. They didn’t have a better plan, anyway.

“Who’s going to watch Gabriel?” Sam suddenly asked. They could barely bring the baby along to the battlefield wherever that would be. Jody might be able to convince the infant to stay with her for a while, the younger Winchester thought. As little as he liked it, but they might need to do something to make Gabriel unable to find Sam, just to make sure he stayed put, too.

“Uh… who do you think, Sammy?” Dean shot his younger brother a pointed look. Like they needed to add the possibility that the littlest archangel might run away from any temporary caretaker they might choose for him to the list of problems they had. Not to mention that the older Winchester somewhat liked having a good reason to keep his brother away from yet another suicide mission, as much as he was going to miss him by his side.

“Dean,” Sam tried to protest, but was cut off before he could even try to make any sort of argument for letting him come with them.

“No,” Dean stated very determinedly, “You spent a good portion of your life resenting dad for always putting the fight first. Don’t do the same to him now.”

The younger Winchester wanted to object again immediately, but the way his older brother had put a hand on his shoulder while petting Gabriel’s head with the other kept him from saying anything out loud. He still thought that the situations couldn’t be compared to each other, though. It was only about this one last fight they desperately needed to win and they clearly would need every available helping hand for it, too.

“Besides, if we lose, he’ll at least still have you to protect him,” Dean added and the last bit of resistance drained from his younger brother remarkably quickly, “D’you really think I’d leave my only nephew with someone else?”

The littlest archangel seemed to wholeheartedly agree with his uncle and grabbed his hand as tightly as he could, sucking at one of his fingers.

“He’s disgusting sometimes, but he’s family,” the older Winchester grinned before his expression suddenly changed and he pulled his hand away with an undignified yelp, “Son of a…”

Gabriel squealed happily, obviously rather pleased with himself and his wide grin wasn’t completely toothless anymore.


	29. Chapter 29

**28**

 

Sam knew that he didn’t have much time. In fact, he should have been holed up in the panic room with Gabriel already, but there was something he thought he should do beforehand. They didn’t have a way to say when exactly Raphael would attack of course, so the younger Winchester chose to push everything else aside and just go through with his plan as quickly as possible.

Oh, Bobby was probably going to kill Sam for summoning the demon to his living room after they had only just gotten him off their backs, but desperate times desperate measures and all that.

The littlest archangel was still drooling against the younger Winchester’s shoulder in his sleep when the king of hell chose to show himself.

“This better be good,” Crowley stated rather seriously before he simply sneered, “But knowing you morons you’re just on a quest to waste both our time.”

“And you still showed up,” Sam replied matter-of-factly, giving the king of hell a hard stare.

They both knew that the demon wouldn’t have had to come if he absolutely hadn’t wanted to. Sure, it was highly doubtful that this meeting would accomplish anything, but the human wouldn’t have summoned the king of hell if he had been completely sure that it was senseless and the demon wouldn’t have followed the invitation if he hadn’t seen anything in it for him.

“Maybe I just wanted to see your pretty face the last time before Raphael smites you,” Crowley shrugged casually and wiggled his finger in front of Gabriel’s nose when he noticed that the baby had woken up and was looking at him, “Your brother is going to add the moose to the list of extinct species.”

The archangel giggled. The tone the demon had just used suggested that he had said something funny and that was everything that counted to the infant, in the end.

“I wouldn’t dream of asking you for help, if that was the only problem we were dealing with,” Sam snorted.

Like the younger Winchester seriously thought that the demon would do anything to help him out of the goodness of his heart! He also didn’t plan to make any sort of deal with him. It shouldn’t be said that Sam couldn’t learn from past mistakes and making a deal with any demon had brought nothing but trouble and hurt their way ever since Mary had started it.

“Oh, that’s what you are trying to do here,” Crowley shot back derisively, “I’ll make this simple and quick, so maybe you can follow. No!”

Actually, he had thought he had made that pretty clear the last time they had spoken. Well, he had given them an option they could have gone for, but looking at the baby it was obvious that they hadn’t chosen to take it. They had nothing more to expect from him. Hell, he wasn’t the damn salvation army!

“You’re scared of Raphael,” Sam replied factually instead of responding in the same way the demon had addressed him, “You were scared of Gabriel when you found out who and what he is, but you know he won’t do a damn thing to you as long as he doesn’t see you as a threat. You’re trying to do the same with Raphael. Make yourself look like you’re not a threat and hope he’ll just leave you alone.”

Crowley looked like he wanted to laugh, but the younger Winchester wouldn’t allow that to keep him from going through the little speech he had prepared in his mind before he had summoned the demon. He still was pretty sure that he had a damn good point to make.

“I’m telling you why that way of thinking is going to get you killed,” Sam spoke on, “Raphael will open the cage and he will set Lucifer and Michael free and neither one of them will leave your sorry ass unharmed, but from what I’ve seen I’d say that Lucifer will win anyway and wouldn’t he just love to get his hands on you?”

It wasn’t like the devil didn’t know that Crowley had betrayed him, after all. Even if Lucifer wasn’t out for revenge he’d still kick the king of hell of his throne and that would be the least of Crowley’s problems.

“As you said yourself, I’ll be dead at that point, so he’ll have more than enough time to spend with you,” Sam added, gently rocking the baby against his shoulder to keep him from picking up on what was actually going on for as long as possible, “And you’d better be fucking terrified, because God knows I am. Hell, I hope I’ll be permanently dead before Lucifer gets out again, but even if I’m not, he’s already had enough time to play with me… You, you’re fresh meat.”

Gabriel had kept quiet throughout the human’s rant, but when Sam’s voice got a little more threatening at the end the baby stared at him with big eyes and nearly started to cry until the younger Winchester held him a little tighter and rubbed soothing circles on his back.

“Please, you’d say anything to get the help you and the little heavenly pest need,” Crowley replied, but his voice wasn’t quite as self-assured and smug as it usually was. The difference wasn’t that big, but it was there nonetheless.

Sam huffed out a breath, “You know I’m right, anyway.”

The younger Winchester tousled Gabriel’s hair and reached for the freshly cleaned pacifier he had put on the table earlier which the infant accepted immediately and with a smile. He had vowed to himself that once the talk with the demon was over he’d just do everything to keep the littlest archangel as happy as possible. It might be the last chance he ever got, after all.

Sam wasn’t quite sure what he had expected would happen, but the king of hell patting his shoulder hadn’t been it.

“Good try, Sasquatch,” Crowley stated with a perfectly nonchalant expression before he vanished into thin air.

 

* * *

 

 

Being one of only two humans standing in front of a rather large group of angels could have given everyone an inferiority complex Dean was sure. It didn’t help that most of the angels were looking at them like they wanted to smite them on the spot.

Castiel’s presence was comforting, but Dean didn’t kid himself into believing that his friend - and Mr. Snarky Pants – could do an awful lot, if their brothers and sisters decided that they wanted to see him and Bobby dead.

At least, the general atmosphere was tense and hostile but not murderous… yet.

The older Winchester was really glad that his brother had stayed away from this after he heard the less than positive reactions a couple of angels gave when Castiel told them about Gabriel’s return and the fact that God had put him in Sam’s care. He had expected it, but that didn’t mean that Dean didn’t feel like punching every single one of the douchebags who refused to see his younger brother as anything but an abomination.

Bobby was apparently thinking something along those lines as well, if his very tense posture and the way he was tightening his grip on his favorite shotgun was any indication.

Damn, maybe they should have brought Sam and Gabriel after all. One look at those two and nobody would have been able to doubt that they couldn’t be separated. But of course it would have been a spectacularly stupid idea to allow either of them anywhere close to this stupid open field somewhere in Georgia.

At least, the next signs for outrage coming from the group of angels weren’t directed at any of them. Apparently, Bobby had had the right idea when he had said that others might dislike the thought of what Raphael would do to Gabriel just as little as Castiel and Balthazar did.

“You do not have to agree with my views to know that we cannot allow Raphael to do anything like this!” Castiel finished the most fervent speech he had probably ever made.

The two humans and Balthazar were trying to estimate how much of an impact the dark-haired angel had actually managed to make, but it was hard to say how many of those that actually looked affronted would also have the will and the guts to do something about it. It took a couple of agonizing seconds before the first angels stepped forward and took their stand next to those few that were already on their side. The response could have been much greater, but they hadn’t tried for nothing, at least.

“There’s just one thing I’ve got to say to all of you who don’t want to join us,” Dean announced loudly, earning himself a few glares but most of all curious looks and frowns, “If you don’t care that Raphael wants to see the world burn, I get it, I probably wouldn’t care if he wanted to see heaven burn, either. If you don’t give a rats ass about your personal freedom and free will, ironically that’s your choice. And if you don’t care that Raphael wants to kill or maim one of your brothers – the one God personally brought back as a completely innocent baby, nevertheless – you’re horrible, horrible people, but whatever, get lost and watch the rest of us fight for what we believe is right. But before you go, one of you should hand me your damn angel blade! You won’t need it anyway, but I will take a stand and I will show Raphael that he’s messing with the wrong fucking family!”

Balthazar simply smirked and shook his head slightly. He had known that the older Winchester was courageous, but this was still a rather remarkable, not to say stupid. Telling a bunch of angels that they were cowards to the face was a whole new level of ballsy – or insane – behavior. The angel had to admit that he was rather impressed by the fact that most of his brothers and sisters actually stuck around after they had heard what the older Winchester had to say. If nothing else, they apparently still didn’t want to be put to shame by some ordinary human.

“That was very inspiring,” Castiel stated, patting Dean’s shoulder in an imitation of what the human liked to do to him to reassure him or to show that he had done something right.

Before the older Winchester could respond a female angel with long blond hair approached him and – never meeting his eyes – handed him her angel blade. Well, she was going to have a bad conscience at least and Dean finally had a weapon that would actually help him defend himself against an angel.

Next to him Bobby received his own weapon from a cute, little redhead who still chose to stick around after she had handed the blade over. The older hunter gave her a tight nod and tested the weight and feel of the weapon with a few quick movements. He really would have preferred his shotgun, but beggars couldn’t be choosers.

Both humans figured that they didn’t actually have to beat Raphael in the sense of killing the archangel that day. It would be enough if they could just drive him and his followers back that would show him that he couldn’t simply overrun them and then they’d have some more time to figure something better out. Eventually the arch-douche would have to be dealt with in a more permanent way, though. They didn’t want to have to look over their shoulders for the rest of their lives, after all.

“Alright feathers, what are our chances?” Bobby asked Balthazar in a gruff tone. He didn’t like going into a fight with as little information as they had, but they didn’t have the time for a thorough analysis of their situation, so he would settle for knowing the odds.

“On a scale from ‘we’re all going to die’ to ‘we’re all going to die horribly and painfully’ I’d say our chances to score high points aren’t quite that bad,” Balthazar snarked and got a reprimanding look from Castiel for it. There was no use demoralizing their followers. The dark-haired angel had to admit that his brother’s evaluation of the situation might be quite correct, though.

“What the hell?” Dean suddenly exclaimed, staring at the line of demons that had just appeared in front of them.

Castiel barely managed to keep the other angels from attacking them immediately and to be honest he wasn’t quite that sure why he even did that, but the way Crowley had raised his arms as a sign that he wanted to talk was good enough for the angel. They could still smite the demons, if they didn’t like what the king of hell had to say, after all.

“We come in peace,” Crowley announced in a mocking tone, “A giant birdie told us that you all would need every helping hand you can get.”

Dean groaned silently at that. He really hoped that Sam hadn’t done anything spectacularly stupid, but knowing that his brother had the baby archangel to care for he was quite sure that there hadn’t been any deals involved. That didn’t mean that he didn’t want to give his younger brother a piece of his mind for even talking to the demon, though.

“And I figured being on good terms with the future management couldn’t hurt,” the king of hell added, looking at Castiel, “But we can speak about the specifics later.”

Castiel stared back at Crowley stony-faced for a couple of moments before he nodded tightly. The demon was right, they were in need of his help and there was probably some sort of understanding they would be able to come to after everything was said and done. The angel acknowledged that the demon was taking a leap of faith – so to say – when he offered to help them first and speak about the conditions for the help later, at least.

“Alright gentlemen, I want you to look at everyone around you very closely,” Crowley ordered the demons he had brought along for the battle, “Those are our allies from now on until I say otherwise again!”

Bobby and Dean gave each other looks that were somewhere between worried and disbelieving, but they didn’t really have a choice but to go along with the changed circumstances. Didn’t mean they had to like them, though.

“And we don’t kill the allies as long as there are enemies to slay,” the king of hell finished with a devilish grin.

Balthazar put a slightly forced carefree expression on his face as he patted the older Winchester’s shoulder. “For all it’s worth mate, I liked your speech better.”


	30. Chapter 30

**29**

 

To tell the truth, when Crowley had casually announced that he had wiped out a nest of demons only leaving one alive on purpose during the Apocalypse, Dean hadn’t been able to fully buy the story. The demon just seemed like too much of a bureaucrat to go and get his hands dirty like that most of the time.

Oh, the older Winchester didn’t think that Crowley wasn’t capable of committing horrible crimes. He still was a demon and that he had somehow been able to weasel his way to the top of the crossroads demons’ hierarchy and later to the top of hell as a whole clearly spoke for his determination and skills. All in all, Dean wouldn’t ever have said that Crowley wasn’t a threat, but he would have said that you probably had to watch out for his goons coming for you, if you got in his way.

The way the demon was fighting off one angel after the other with a nearly crazy smile on his face forced the older Winchester to admit that Crowley probably really liked getting his hands dirty, though.

Not that Dean had too much time to ponder these matters. Raphael had launched his attack not too long after the demons had decided to join them. At least, that hadn’t given more of the angels on their side the chance to reconsider working with the side that had a couple of demons fighting for it. Raphael had many more fighters on his side as it was already, anyway.

“You owe me a yearlong vacation after this, Cassy!” Balthazar yelled between dealing blows toward opponents that got too close to him. He might have managed to attack with more force, if he hadn’t had to keep an eye on Bobby, too. The older human was doing quite well all things considered, but you couldn’t expect him to last long in a fight against angels without assistance.

“This is not the time,” Castiel replied before he had to stop speaking and yank Dean away from one of his brothers instead. The angel was quite satisfied with how well he and the older Winchester seemed to work together more or less instinctively, but that didn’t mean that he didn’t have to watch out for his charge.

“Dude, I sort of lost count here,” Dean stated a little out of breath when he got a moment to talk, “Who’s winning right now?”

Their surroundings were pretty chaotic with all the angels and demons fighting each other and the human could only hope that the demons were in fact battling the right angels. From the intensity of the battle and judged by the fact that he, Bobby, Cas and Balthazar weren’t overrun with opponents it seemed likely that they were more or less evenly matched right now. It would have been nice to hear a little reassuring talk, though. Alright, Castiel probably really wasn’t the go-to guy for that.

“We still seem to be at a disadvantage, but not as dramatically as expected,” the angel answered matter-of-factly. Well, for his standards that basically was a pep-talk.

Bobby groaned and tried to say something before another angel charged at him and he barely had enough time to parry the blow. Balthazar quickly killed the angel and gave the older human a quick once over, obviously impressed that he hadn’t been wounded. Bobby wasn’t quite sure if he should feel insulted or honored, but with all the adrenaline coursing through his veins he tended to not think about these things too much, anyway.

“It sure helps that Raphael hasn’t shown up,” Balthazar observed sarcastically before the meaning of his own words even fully hit him.

If the archangel wasn’t on the battlefield with his army then he was someplace else and since he had made his intentions pretty clear from the start that meant he was most surely searching for Gabriel. If he didn’t already know where to find him, that was.

“Balls!” Bobby exclaimed, throwing a worried look the older Winchester’s way.

Unfortunately there was nothing either one of them could have done that very moment.

 

* * *

 

 

As soon as Crowley had vanished Sam had taken Gabriel and had tried to get them comfortable in the panic room. Sure, they had brought most of the infant’s things down there earlier, but it still wasn’t quite the same than being in any of the ordinary rooms of the house. There was no use denying that sitting there basically waiting for something bad to happen made Sam nervous, even though he knew that he would only make Gabriel nervous with it, too.

The littlest archangel had been testing his new tooth on a teething ring enthusiastically until the tall human had started to think about his brother and the older hunter who basically was like a father to him. Gabriel cocked his head, dropped the toy and held both arms out as a sign for Sam to pick him up immediately.

“Shh, I’m sorry, Shorty,” the younger Winchester whispered in a soothing tone, cradling the infant against his chest and rocking him gently, “They’re all going to be okay.”

Dean, Bobby and Castiel were good fighters and had lived through a lot of things before. Sam could nearly believe that he hadn’t just lied to the archangel. Apparently, that was good enough for the baby, anyway.

“You’ll see, Gabe,” the younger Winchester forced a smile, “They’ll all be back with us and uncle Dean will tell his awesome battle stories just to make sure we admire his fighting skills. Castiel will probably just look confused and try to tell how it really was. All facts. That’s how I know your brother.”

Gabriel gave Sam a wide smile as the human rambled on about what he really hoped was going to happen at the end of all this. The smile the younger Winchester returned was more heartfelt this time.

“Bobby will talk about how we’re all _idjits_ ,” Sam added in a fond tone and managed to make the baby squeal happily when he imitated the way Bobby liked to say his favorite nickname for the Winchesters, “But he’ll have that proud look on his face, so we know he’s actually pleased with how things went. I suppose Balthazar will then say something to annoy Dean and they’ll just start bickering which will confuse Cas some more…”

Yes, the younger Winchester really hoped that Balthazar made it out of all this alive, as well. He seemed to be okay for a douchebag angel – as Dean liked to call them – and he was very fond of Gabriel and Gabriel of him. Basically, he just wanted things to be how they had been in the past weeks. Minus the part where Raphael was a constant threat to their little family, of course.

“We’re all going to be okay,” Sam finished, pressing a quick kiss to the side of the archangel’s head which caused the baby to snuggle against him even more, “Better than okay.”

Of course, the universe just had to prove the younger Winchester wrong exactly the moment he started to talk optimistically.

The door to the panic room fell off its hinges with a loud bang which made Sam flinch and Gabriel cry out. The – suddenly female – archangel simply stood in the doorway regarding the two of them with cold eyes.

“Did you really think you could hide my brother from me?” Raphael asked dryly, stepping over the threshold.

The younger Winchester hadn’t believed that the archangel somehow wouldn’t be able to enter the room for a second, but his heart dropped when he saw it, anyway. It also wasn’t good that the stupid door had fallen on the circle of holy oil they had prepared on the floor. If it wasn’t a full circle there was no use bothering with it anymore. Well, damn!

“Do you really think you can take my baby from me?” Sam shot back, tightening his grip on Gabriel. Sure, he had no idea what he could even do against the intruder, but something like that had never kept any Winchester from acting tough!

The infant was wailing at this point. He had clearly picked up on the fact that they were in danger and if he was trying to do something about it, it wasn’t working at all.

“Gabriel isn’t yours, abomination!” the archangel hissed, nearly spitting the last word out.

The way the baby clung to his caretaker meant much more to Sam than anything the archangel could have ever thrown at his head, though. He was long past fearing that he might not be a good enough caretaker, at this point.

“Your father entrusted him to me,” the younger Winchester stated determinedly, “And I won’t let you get your hands on him!”

If nothing else, making brave but totally unrealistic statements like that seemed to reassure Gabriel and that was enough of a reason to just keep talking. Not to mention that Sam thought that there was the littlest chance that help might arrive, if they gave them a little more time. He was sure that the archangel would have informed him already, if the battle had been over and they had lost.

“And how exactly do you think you will keep me from doing just that?” Raphael taunted, walking up to the pair with slow steps.

Sam didn’t have a good answer to that question. Things were going to go down in exactly the way he hadn’t wanted them to. The only choice left to him was not to let go of his little archangel no matter what and holding on for however long that would be possible.

“You think you can scare me?” the younger Winchester spat in that stupidly brave way that seemed to be ingrained in his very being, “You forget that I basically spent an eternity with your two bigger brothers.”

As much as the thought of failing to protect Gabriel terrified Sam, he wouldn’t give Raphael the satisfaction of seeing that and he wouldn’t make everything worse for the baby by panicking, either.

“Scaring you has never been the aim of this mission,” the archangel replied in a deadly cold tone.

The younger Winchester didn’t even get the chance to fully understand what was happening before his back collided with the wall painfully. He was just about to slide down the wall, more focused on keeping his tight grip on Gabriel than on staying upright, but Raphael’s hand against his throat prevented that from happening.

“So? You can’t handle Cas, so you go and sink to a level even Lucifer would be impressed with?” Sam wheezed. Black spots were starting to dance before his eyes, but he tried not to pay attention to that and just stall long enough for someone to come and rescue them. Even if that wasn’t going to happen, he refused to loosen his grip on the infant.

“This is not about Castiel and his laughable ideas,” Raphael spat.

The archangel tightened her grip on the younger Winchester’s throat for a few moments before she pushed his head back against the wall brutally which finally forced the human to let go of the baby.

“Gabriel helped you disturb the great order of things,” the archangel spoke on, untouched by the baby’s hysterical crying, “Now he is going to help restore it.”

Sam was pretty sure that he had a concussion at least, but he couldn’t be bothered with pesky details like that as long as Gabriel was wailing and yelling for his ‘dada’.

The tall human managed to get back to his feet with great difficulties. He was going to die trying, but that would be better than live on knowing that he hadn’t done everything in his power to help Gabriel. There had to be something – anything, really - he could do.

The only thing on the younger Winchester’s mind was to get his baby back to where he belonged and make sure that Raphael wouldn’t get a second chance to ever get his hands on the infant. It was basically his will alone that let him set one foot in front of the other and took him to the other side of the room where the two archangels were.

The adult archangel’s focus was completely on her baby brother. The human could barely keep himself upright, let alone walk and even before she had injured him there had been nothing he could have done to stop her, so there was no need to waste time and energy on him.

“How often do I have to tell you people?” Sam pressed through gritted teeth, nearly falling against the archangel as he finally managed to get across the room, “Get your hands off my baby!”

Raphael apparently wanted to give a scathing reply, but everything that came out of her mouth was a surprised noise. The younger Winchester let go of the angel blade he had ran the archangel through with a moment earlier in favor of taking Gabriel away from the dying woman who had an utterly shocked expression on her face as she stared down to the tip of the blade that was protruding from her stomach.

Sam quickly cradled the baby against his chest securely and turned his back on the scene, so the infant wouldn’t have to watch one of his siblings’ grace burn out and die.

As soon as the blinding light had disappeared the younger Winchester slowly made his way out of the panic room, all the while carefully trying to prevent Gabriel from getting even a glimpse of the corpse with the outstretched, ashen wings. It was bad enough that he had had to supply the human with his angel blade in order to defeat Raphael. Sam really was nothing but glad that the littlest archangel had picked up on that desperate thought and that he apparently somehow had had access to the weapon at all, though.

The younger Winchester stood at the bottom of the stairs, looking up toward the door and decided to take a seat on one of the steps instead. His head was pretty much killing him and he was feeling dizzy and slightly unfocused, so climbing up stairs with a baby in his arms didn’t sound like the safest idea.

“Daddy isn’t going to break his neck now that all this is over,” Sam mumbled, rubbing soothing circles against Gabriel’s back as the infant hugged his neck and rubbed his head against the human’s jaw.

It took a few moments before everything that had just happened sunk in completely and the younger Winchester had to start chuckling despite the ache in his head. The littlest archangel looked at his caretaker with big eyes for a moment before he joined the laughing and that was how the others found them a couple of minutes later.


	31. Chapter 31

**Epilogue**

 

Their lives had become very domestic ever after Raphael had been killed. Most of the archangel’s followers had readily ceased fighting as soon as they had felt their leader’s demise and from what Castiel had told them the peace talks had been very successful very quickly. It seemed like a lot more angels were at least willing to give the entire free will thing a chance now that Raphael’s influence had been removed. Not to mention that they would have had to change their system, anyway. The only available archangel left was the one who was only just learning to say ‘daddy’ correctly and who had accidentally bitten his own foot the last time he had gotten it into his mouth.

Surprisingly enough, Crowley’s idea of what he wanted in return for the assistance had been something Castiel had deemed reasonable. Basically, the demon had mostly wanted the formal agreement that heaven wasn’t going to interfere with hell’s affairs as long as they only concerned hell.

Both Balthazar and Castiel were visiting the Winchesters and their baby brother very regularly and if Castiel was the one of them who usually stuck around longer, even if he wasn’t the one who played with Gabriel the most, Sam didn’t comment on it. It was nice to have their friend around and Dean had even talked about the possibility of taking Cas to a few hunts, if the angel’s time allowed it.

It looked like that wouldn’t be too much of a problem, though. Balthazar had announced that he was on vacation until further notice the moment all the peace talks and contracts had been dealt with and Castiel had seemed positive that things were up and running and wouldn’t need too much of his time and energy anymore.

They also had decided that Sam and Gabriel would stay with Bobby and even if the older hunter never said it too clearly, he liked the prospect of having some life around the house and that was something the littlest archangel was guaranteed to provide.

At that moment, Gabriel was sitting in the high chair his uncle Dean had bought and put together the other day, watching his father work at the stove with a puzzled expression. As he understood it going to the kitchen meant that there would be pudding and he knew that pudding came from the big cold thing.

“It’s about time we did something about your diet, Gabe,” Sam stated, guessing what the infant’s confusion was about, “They’re sweet peas… and you can have pudding afterward.”

The littlest archangel banged his teething ring against the high chair a few times before he put it back into his mouth to test his three brand new teeth out some more. He wasn’t hungry yet, anyway. He’d let his father know as soon as he really wanted that pudding.

“Hey, buddy,” Dean greeted his nephew and took him out of the high chair as soon as the infant made grabbing motions into his direction with both hands, “What’s mommy doing?”

“Dean,” Sam replied in a warning tone. They had talked about this. Even if the teasing didn’t annoy the younger Winchester – which it did, no matter how much he denied it – it just wasn’t good to confuse Gabriel with the use of wrong words while he was only learning the right ones.

“Okay, okay, what’s _daddy_ doing then?” the older Winchester gave in with a grin, lifting the giggling baby over his head, “Is he still trying to get some of those vegetables into you?”

The younger Winchester rolled his eyes and went back to pureeing the peas. Alright, so maybe it wouldn’t make a damn difference to the infant, but Sam still wanted to give a somewhat balanced diet a try.

“Dude, you’ve got like the perfect baby here,” Dean clicked his tongue, throwing the infant into the air and catching him again a couple of times before he put him back into his high chair and handed the teething ring to him again, “He can’t get sick, can’t really get hurt, only pees when he thinks it’d be funny and he can eat whatever the hell he wants without it having any ill effects, but you insist on making things harder for the two of you.”

Still, Sam wouldn’t be the younger brother Dean knew and loved if he didn’t get obsessed with little things like that. Oh well, he would just have to be an awesome uncle and make sure that Gabe still got his pudding.

“It’s not only about eating healthy, it’s about variety,” the younger Winchester pointed out and put the pot aside to let the pureed peas cool down a little. He was willing to accept that the baby just wasn’t fond of all things that weren’t sugary when the infant had tried and rejected them.

“Whatever, bitch,” Dean muttered before he went on in a more upbeat tone, “Anyway, I got a little something for the two of you!”

“More Transformers shirts?” Sam guessed with a small grin. Of course, the shirts were from the cartoon not the movie, not that it mattered to either the younger Winchester or the littlest archangel, but uncle Dean very much insisted that it made all the difference.

“Nah,” the older Winchester replied eloquently, “Remember that crazy friend Bobby mentioned? There was something in the mail today.”

Dean waved the big brown envelope in front of his younger brother’s nose for a few moments until Sam had had enough and grabbed it. He was undoubtedly meant to take a look at the content, anyway.

“Gabriel Winchester,” the younger Winchester read out loud. The document he was holding was clearly a certificate of birth, even if it was obviously forged. There were other papers in the envelope as well, but this one was interesting enough that Sam wasn’t paying much attention to anything else, for the moment being.

“So, his birthday is the 24th of March,” the younger Winchester stated, nodding slightly before his eyes widened nearly comically, “And his mother is Joanna Beth Harvelle?”

Dean shrugged lightly, “Mother unknown would have looked really strange, don’t you think?”

Besides, he had thought about this for quite some time before he had decided to put Jo’s name on the papers. His first choice would have been Jessica, but he hadn’t wanted to bring Sam down with another thing that might have been and never would be. Besides, if they should really need all the official papers for something and someone should look into it, it would be too easy to tell that Jessica Moore had been long dead before the baby had even been born. While the same was technically true for Jo, nobody had ever made the fact that she was no longer alive official.

The younger Winchester nodded slightly. Yes, an unknown mother would have looked suspicious and Jo was a good choice. Sam had always liked and respected her a lot, even if there hadn’t been any romantic feelings involved. He had simply been very surprised by reading that specific name in that context.

“And his birthday is one of the feast days for the archangel Gabriel,” Dean added when he was sure that his brother had processed the other bit of information.

The younger Winchester chuckled amusedly and quickly looked through the other papers which basically gave him full legal custody over the littlest archangel.

“Thanks, Dean,” Sam gave his brother a heartfelt smile and hugged him for a long moment until Gabriel started to squirm and complain, wanting to be cuddled, as well. The baby’s demand was quickly met and Dean was rather glad to see another chick-flick moment pass.

“And now I’m going to show you how the little squab is going to eat pretty much anything you want him to,” the older Winchester grinned and went to get some of the pureed peas for a demonstration.

Sam frowned deeply, rocking Gabriel until he stopped complaining and started giggling again.

“I’m not sure I want to know any more of the great techniques you used on me,” he replied a little uncertainly. Alright, pinching his nose and stuffing something into his mouth when he had to open it to breathe hadn’t done any long lasting damage, but Sam still could have lived without knowing that Dean had done things like that to him.

“This one’s better,” the older Winchester promised, grabbing a spoon and giving his younger brother a self-assured smile.

Dean leaned against the kitchen counter close to Sam and Gabriel and dipped the spoon into the peas, raising it to his mouth and making content noises as he ate the food and seemingly not paying attention to the baby at all. He had to repeat the process twice before the archangel even looked his way, but it was soon afterward that the baby seemed genuinely interested and raised a hand as a sign that he wanted to have the spoon.

The older Winchester’s grin could have lightened up an entire football stadium as he filled the spoon again and offered it to his nephew who didn’t think twice and opened his mouth.

Sam didn’t comment until he was sure that the archangel had actually swallowed the food and he was only really impressed when Gabriel demanded more immediately afterward, anyway.

“Wow,” the younger Winchester stated with a small grin, “And the best thing is; you ate some, too. I never thought I’d see the day…”

He had to admit that he deserved the spoonful of peas he got thrown at his head for that, but Dean totally deserved the water Sam poured over his head as retaliation a moment later and Gabriel thought that their little family feud was too funny, anyway.

As they stood there in the kitchen dirty and wet, but basically shaking with laughter, the younger Winchester couldn’t help thinking that life hadn’t been this good in a very long time and for once he didn’t expect it to take a turn for the worse again.


End file.
